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Report for period 22 January to 19 February 2010

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected.

Report for Period 30 January to 12 February 2010

After the successful test of the deep space hibernation mode (DSHM), which was covered in the previous reporting period, spacecraft maintenance activities have resumed as planned. Reaction wheel B was re-lubricated on DoY 034, with a run-in phase that lasted till DoY 042. It was subsequently added in the control loop of the spacecraft's attitude & orbit control system, which now operates on all four reaction wheels again. During the reporting period several payload tests were also conducted in preparation of the 12th payload check-out, which is planned for April-May 2010.

The Venus Express spacecraft and instruments performed nominally during the reporting period. The solar conjunction operations phase that had started on 29 December 2009 in the previous reporting period was concluded on 22 January 2010. During this phase all instruments were off. Following the solar conjunction exit, the instruments have again nominally resumed routine science operations.

Main events and Activities

This report covers two months of Mars Express mission operations, from 1 December 2009 to 1 February 2010. The eighth Mars Express occultation season, which started already on 20 September 2009, and the eighth Mars Express eclipse season, which started 10 November 2009, both are ongoing. On 29 January Mars was at opposition.

Report for Period 16 January to 29 January 2010

The reporting period covers two weeks, which were fully dedicated to the test of the deep space hibernation mode (DSHM) for Rosetta. This is the hibernation mode in which the spacecraft will operate from June 2011 till January 2014 on its last long stretch of passive cruise to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.