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ESA's Venus Express spacecraft launched spaceward at 10:33 p.m. EST (0333 GMT) from Launch Pad 6 at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.The European probe Venus Express fired its Fregat upper stage engine briefly in a successful burn to guide it into a parking orbit, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.
Venus Express is ESA's first probe dedicated solely to the exploration of Venus, with several of its instruments derived from tools that have flown on past missions to Mars and a comet. The spacecraft is the fastest built to date for ESA.