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Report for Period 15 February to 21 February 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week. The third VIRTIS cooler test took place on 19 February and the results are currently being analyzed by the VIRTIS PI Team.

Report for Period 8 February to 14 february 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week. The commissioning of the B branch of the Reaction Control Subsystem (RCS) on 12 February 2009 has been successful.

Report for Period 17 January to 13 February 2009

The reporting period covers four weeks of active cruise phase characterised by platform and payload check-out activities. Spacecraft and ground segment performance during the reporting period have been nominal.

Report for Period 1 February to 7 February 2009

The Venus Express spacecraft and payload performed nominally during this week, with VIRTIS continued being operated in visual channels only.

Report for Period 25 January to 31 January 2009

Nominal operations were conducted during the reporting period. Sunday, 25 January, was the last day of this inbound quadrature phase. Having been in a tilted configuration since 19 December 2008, the spacecraft started performing communication passes in a non-tilted configuration again on 26 January.

Mission Status

Much effort was needed in preparation for the 2008 eclipse season which, once again, was almost coincident with Mars being furthest from the Sun; making it an operationally very challenging period for the Mars Express mission.

Mission Operations

The tilt of Cluster 3 (45° with respect to Cluster 4) has been successfully performed in May 2008. This allowed the 3D electric field to be measured for the first time by combining both spacecraft measurements. Preliminary results show the successful measurement of parallel electric fields in the auroral zone. The tilt also improved significantly the localization of the sources of radio waves in the magnetosphere.

Mission Status

The spacecraft status is nominal, with the High Gain Antenna (HGA) Z-axis in a fixed position. All SOHO instruments are nominal and science operations are progressing smoothly.

Mission Status

Following a full recovery from its 6th Emergency Sun Acquisition Mode on 6-7 October 2008, XMM-Newton operations continue smoothly with the spacecraft, instruments and ground segment all performing nominally.

Mission Status

On 14 January 2008, during the mission's third north polar pass, the spacecraft reached maximum northern latitude on its third solar orbit. Around the same time the X-band transmitter onboard the spacecraft failed after its power supply could not be switched on again following what was planned to be a temporary switch off. This unfortunately has left the mission with S-band-only communication. The temporary switch off of the X-band transmitter was part of a plan to manage the naturally decreasing amount of available power from the spacecraft's generator after, at that time, more than 17 years of operations.

Mission Status

Operations continue nominally with the spacecraft, instruments and ground segment all performing nominally. Mission operations are currently funded until end December 2012.