Venus Express has survived its aerobraking campaign, in which it dipped lower into the atmosphere of Venus than any previous orbiter. For the next two weeks, it will carry out a series of thruster firings to raise the altitude of its pericentre - the closest point of its orbit to the planet - from 130 km to 460 km. We are hoping not to run out of propellant during this activity, the fuel tanks are almost empty!

* Full story at www.esa.int    

* Further details on the ESA Rocket Science blog at: blogs.esa.int