"ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has climbed to a new orbit following its daring aerobraking experiment, and will now resume observations of this fascinating planet for at least a few more months. The orbit-raising followed a month of aerobraking that saw the spacecraft surf in and out of the atmosphere at altitudes typically between 131 km and 135 km for a couple of minutes on each of its closest approaches to the planet. Before, normal operations involved an elliptical orbit every 24 hours that took Venus Express from 66 000 km over the south pole down to around 250 km at the north pole, just above the top of the atmosphere. But, after eight years and with propellant running low, the Venus Express team began a daring aerobraking campaign, dipping the craft progressively lower into the atmosphere on its closest approaches." - Mark H

"This orbit will slowly decay again under gravity, but with only a few kilograms of fuel at most now remaining further altitude-raising manoeuvres may not be possible. If no further corrections are made, Venus Express will probably reenter the atmosphere again in December, but this time for good, ending the mission.In the meantime, having survived not only the aerobraking experiment but also the most recent orbit-raising manoeuvres, all of the science experiments will be reactivated, continuing their detailed study of Venus for at least a few more months." - Mark H