ESA confident that Venus Express will be ready for launch window
Despite delaying the launch of Venus Express following the discovery of particulate contamination in the spacecraft's fairing, the European Space Agency (ESA) is confident that Europe's latest planetary mission will blast off well within the launch window, which closes on 24 November. Venus Express, which was due to be launched on 26 October, has been removed from its Soyuz launcher to allow ESA and industry teams to inspect the spacecraft. So far, the assessment has revealed Venus Express to be 'in good status', according to ESA. 'The scenario is so far very encouraging,' says an ESA statement, 'as only fairly large particles, pieces of the insulating material initially covering the launcher's Fregat upper stage, have been found on the body of the spacecraft. These have been easy to identify by naked eye or with UV lamps, and are being carefully removed with tweezers, vacuum-cleaners or nitrogen gas airbrushes, according to size.' The process of inspecting and cleaning Venus Express is expected to last for several more days, after which electrical tests and routine checks will be carried out before re-integration with the launcher. 'ESA and Starsem, the company responsible for the Soyuz-Fregat launcher, are merging the results of their parallel investigations and recovery measures to define a new launch date in the shortest time frame,' the statement concludes.