Venus Express

Venus Express was the European Space Agency's first mission to Venus, a spacecraft built to study the Venusian atmosphere over long periods from a polar orbit. It was launched in November 2005, arrived at Venus in April 2006 and carried seven scientific instruments, several of them derived from instruments flown on Mars Express and Rosetta. Its main objective was the long term observation of the atmosphere, which earlier Venus missions had never done and which was key to understanding atmospheric dynamics and the changes that led to the present greenhouse conditions. The spacecraft reused the Mars Express bus, and EADS Astrium of Toulouse, the business that later became part of Airbus Defence and Space, was prime contractor for ESA. Mission control lost contact on 28 November 2014 and ESA concluded the mission in December 2014.