European spacecraft dips into Venusian orbit

A European spacecraft dipped into orbit around Venus today after a 248-million-mile journey from Earth.

Launched Nov. 9 aboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the European Space Agency Venus Express spacecraft fired its main engine for a 50-minute burn, slowing the craft enough to drop it into orbit.

ESA officials said the engine firing was a complete success.

Over the next month, the spacecraft will perform a series of maneuvers aimed at guiding the probe to an operational orbit that circles the planet's poles once every 24 hours. From that perch, the spacecraft will study the structure, chemistry and dynamics of the planet's atmosphere.

Previous missions to Venus -- including one carried out in the early 1990s by NASA's Magellan Venus Radar Mapper -- have shown that the planet is shrouded by a thick atmosphere that has created a global greenhouse effect.

Scientists are interested in studying the phenomenon to determine whether similar conditions could develop on Earth.

"To better understand our own planet, we need to explore other worlds, in particular, those with an atmosphere," ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said in a statement.

"By observing Venus and its complex atmospheric system, we will be able to better understand the mechanisms that steer the evolution of a large planetary atmosphere and the change of climates," he said.

"In the end, it will help us to get better models of what is actually going on in our own atmosphere, for the benefit of all Earth citizens."

Spacecraft science instruments will be checked out over the next two months. The probe is expected to operate for about 500 days.