observations were then used to develop methods for habitability studies of exoplanets. Timeline of the mission 3 August 2005: Venus Express completed its final phase of testing at Astrium Intespace facility in Toulouse, France. 7 August 2005: Venus Express arrived at the airport of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. 16 August 2005: First flight verification test completed. 22 August 2005: Integrated System Test-3. 30 August 2005: Last major system test successfully started. 5 September 2005: Electrical testing successful. 21 September 2005: FRR (Fuelling Readiness Review) Ongoing. 12 October 2005: Mating to the Fregat upper stage completed. 21 October 2005: Contamination detected inside the fairing – launch on hold. 5 November 2005: Arrival at launch pad. 9 November 2005: Launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 03:33:34 UTC. 11 November 2005: First trajectory correction maneuver successfully performed. 17 February 2006: The main engine is fired successfully in a dress rehearsal for the arrival maneuver. 24 February 2006: Second trajectory correction maneuver successfully performed. 29 March 2006: Third trajectory correction maneuver successfully performed – on target for 11 April orbit insertion. 7 April 2006: Command stack for orbit insertion maneuver is loaded on the spacecraft. 11 April 2006: The Venus Orbit Insertion (VOI) is completed successfully, according to the following timeline: {| class="wikitable" |- !Event !Spacecraft event time (UTC) !Ground receive time (UTC) |- | Liquid Settling Phase start || 07:07:56 || 07:14:41 |- | VOI main engine start || 07:10:29 || 07:17:14 |- | periapsis passage || 07:36:35 || |- | eclipse start || 07:37:46 || |- | occultation start || 07:38:30 || 07:45:15 |- | occultation end || 07:48:29 || 07:55:14 |- | eclipse end || 07:55:11 || |- | VOI burn end || 08:00:42 || 08:07:28 |} Period of this initial orbit is nine days. 13 April 2006: First images of Venus from Venus Express released. 20 April 2006: Apoapsis Lowering Manoeuvre #1 performed. Orbital period is now 40 hours. 23 April 2006: Apoapsis Lowering Manoeuvre #2 performed. Orbital period is now approx 25 hours 43 minutes. 26 April 2006: Apoapsis Lowering Manoeuvre #3 is slight fix to previous ALM. 7 May 2006: Venus Express entered its target orbit at apoapsis at 13:31 UTC 14 December 2006: First temperature map of the southern hemisphere. 27 February 2007: ESA agrees to fund mission extension until May 2009. 19 September 2007: End of the nominal mission (500 Earth days) – Start of mission extension. 27