Images of Venus Express In Build
5 October 2004
The Venus Express spacecraft has been assembled at Alenia, Torino over the past 5 months. At the time of these photographs, the satellite was in its "open" configuration, to allow testing of individual units and subsystems once mounted on the spacecraft structure.Just recently, the panels have been closed, in preparation for the transport of the satellite to Intespace in Toulouse. In this test centre, the spacecraft will undergo system level tests, in ambient conditions, in vacuum at extreme temperatures and will also be subjected to vibration tests, representative of the launch environment. For the time being, the tests schedule is proceeding as planned, in time for an October 2005 launch.
Below is a selection of images from the testing phase. Click on an image to view a larger version.
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Last Update: 1 September 2019
