to reach its final operational 24-hour orbit around Venus. Venus Express entered its target orbit at apoapsis on 7 May 2006 at 13:31 UTC, when the spacecraft was from Earth. At this point the spacecraft was running on an ellipse substantially closer to the planet than during the initial orbit. The polar orbit ranged between over Venus. The periapsis was located almost above the North pole (80° North latitude), and it took 24 hours for the spacecraft to travel around the planet. Venus Express studied the Venusian atmosphere and clouds in detail, the plasma environment and the surface characteristics of Venus from orbit. It also made global maps of the Venusian surface temperatures. Its nominal mission was originally planned to last for 500 Earth days (approximately two Venusian sidereal days), but the mission was extended five times: first on 28 February 2007 until early May 2009; then on 4 February 2009 until 31 December 2009; and then on 7 October 2009 until 31 December 2012. On 22 November 2010, the mission was extended to 2014. On 20 June 2013, the mission was extended a final time until 2015. On 28 November 2014, mission control lost contact with Venus Express. Intermittent contact was reestablished on 3 December 2014, though there was no control over the spacecraft, likely due to exhaustion of propellant. On 16 December 2014, ESA announced that the Venus Express mission had ended. A carrier signal was still being received from the vehicle, but no data was being transmitted. Mission manager Patrick Martin expected the spacecraft would fall below in early January 2015, with destruction occurring in late January or early February. The spacecraft's carrier signal was last detected by ESA on 18 January 2015. Instruments ASPERA-4: An acronym for "Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms," ASPERA-4 investigated the interaction between the solar wind and the Venusian atmosphere, determine the impact of plasma processes on the atmosphere, determine global distribution of plasma and neutral gas, study energetic neutral atoms, ions and electrons, and analyze other aspects of the near Venus environment. ASPERA-4 is a re-use of the ASPERA-3 design used on Mars Express, but adapted for the harsher near-Venus environment. MAG: The magnetometer was designed to measure the strength of Venus's magnetic field and the direction of it as affected by the solar wind and Venus itself. It mapped the magnetosheath, magnetotail, ionosphere, and magnetic barrier in high