Venus Express aerobraking

Visualisation of Venus Express during aerobraking, which saw the spacecraft orbiting Venus at an altitude of around 130 km from 18 June to 11 July 2014. In the month before, the altitude was reduced from around 200 km to 130 km.

The spacecraft survived the test campaign, and the elevation of the orbit was later raised back to approximately 450 km, which allowed operations to continue for a further few months. Eventually, the spacecraft plunged back into the atmosphere and the mission ended.