Related: Europe's Venus probe ready for launch

        Launch of Venus Express postponed

The Venus Express being loaded onto its transporter wagon at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, November 4, 2005. If all goes well, at 0333 GMT on Wednesday, the Russian rocket will blast off, taking aloft the first dedicated mission to Earth's closest neighbour in more than a decade. (AFP file photo)

    BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Europe's first space probe designed to explore the hot, dense atmosphere of Venus was launched on Wednesday, beginning a five-month journey to Earth's closest planetary neighbour.      

    From its Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, the European Space Agency (ESA) said the 1.3 tonne "Venus Express" probe had taken off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on board a Soyuz rocket at 0333 GMT on Wednesday.

    "I'm extremely happy", European Space Agency (ESA) scientific programme director David Southwood said 10 minutes after the launch, when all systems were normal.

    Instruments on the probe will try to discover whether Venus' many volcanoes are active and look at how a planet so similar to Earth could have evolved so differently.

    

The Soyuz FG-Fregat vehicle carrying Venus Express, the European Space Agency's (ESA) first probe to Venus, lifts off from a launch complex in Baikonour, Kazakhstan, November 9, 2005. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

"Venus is still a big mystery," said Gerhard Schwehm, head of the planetary missions at ESA.

     The 1.3-ton orbiter will travel through space for 163 days before being captured by Venus' gravity. 

    Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is similar to Earth in size, mass and age but has a very different hot weather system.

    The launch, originally scheduled for Oct. 26, was delayed after discovery of contamination on the covering of the Russian-made Soyuz rocket.

    The last mission to Venus was Magellan, launched by NASA in 1989. It completed more than 15,000 orbits around the planet between 1990 and 1994. Enditem

    (Agencies)

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