Russia to Launch Venus Probe November 9

  31 October 2005

Russia's space agency says it has set a new date for launching a European probe to explore Venus after technical problems postponed the liftoff earlier this month.

Officials said Monday the Soyuz rocket carrying the Venus Express satellite will blast off Wednesday, November 9 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The October 26 launch was canceled due to problems with a booster rocket on the Soyuz spacecraft.

The European Space Agency's Venus Express probe will study the planet's atmosphere for more than a year. The flight to Earth's nearest neighbor is expected to take five months.

Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.

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