[Friday, March 3, 2006] "... you asked for advice on planetary protection concerns related to missions to and from Venus. In particular you asked that the National Research Council address three issues in terms of their implications for planetary protection:..."

[Saturday, March 4, 2006] Excitement grows around the progress of ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft as the distance to its destination gets shorter, in the week which sees the anniversary of another historical Venus mission.

[Monday, March 13, 2006] ESA's Venus Express Probe will arrive at destination in four weeks, on 11 April at around 09:00 GMT. This will involve a one-hour burn of its main engine to decelerate the space probe enough so that it can be captured by Venus' gravity.

[Thursday, March 16, 2006] On 24 February a Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre was executed in order to trim the spacecraft trajectory after the Main Engine calibration manoeuvre.

[Thursday, March 16, 2006] With the reporting period all calibration, science and maintenance activities of the instruments have been completed and focus is now on the Venus approach phase.

[Tuesday, March 21, 2006] The Venus Amateur Observing Project (VAOP) is an opportunity to contribute scientifically useful images and data to complement the Venus Express (VEX) spacecraft observations of Venus.

[Wednesday, March 29, 2006] Venus Express mission controllers at ESA's Space Operations Centre (ESOC) are in intensive preparation for an 11 April arrival at the spacecraft's namesake destination.