Venus Express was the first Venus exploration mission of the European Space Agency. Launched in November 2005, it arrived at Venus in April 2006 and began continuously sending back science data from its polar orbit around Venus. Equipped with seven scientific instruments, the main objective of the mission was the long term observation of the Venusian atmosphere; the observation over such long periods of time had never been done in previous missions to Venus, was key to a better understanding of the atmospheric dynamics. It was hoped that such studies can contribute to an understanding of atmospheric dynamics in general, while contributing to an understanding of climate change on Earth. ESA concluded the mission in December 2014; the mission was proposed in 2001 to reuse the design of the Mars Express mission. However, some mission characteristics led to design changes: in the areas of thermal control and electrical power. For example, since Mars is twice as far from the Sun as Venus, the radiant heating of the spacecraft is four times greater for Venus Express than Mars Express.

The ionizing radiation environment is harsher. On the other hand, the more intense illumination of the solar panels results in more generated photovoltaic power; the Venus Express mission uses some spare instruments developed for the Rosetta spacecraft. The mission was proposed by a consortium led by E. Lellouch and F. Taylor; the launch window for Venus Express was open from 26 October to 23 November 2005, with the launch set for 26 October 4:43 UTC. However, problems with the insulation from the Fregat upper stage led to a two-week launch delay to inspect and clear out the small insulation debris that migrated on the spacecraft, it was launched by a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 9 November 2005 at 03:33:34 UTC into a parking Earth orbit and 1 h 36 min after launch put into its transfer orbit to Venus. A first trajectory correction maneuver was performed on 11 November 2005, it arrived at Venus on 11 April 2006, after 153 days of journey, fired its main engine between 07:10:29 and 08:00:42 UTC SCET to reduce its velocity so that it could be captured by Venusian gravity into a nine-day orbit of 400 by 330,000 kilometres.

The burn was monitored from ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany. Seven further orbit control maneuvers, two with the main engine and five with the thrusters, were required for Venus Express to reach its final operational 24-hour orbit around Venus. Venus Express entered its target orbit at apoapsis on 7 May 2006 at 13:31 UTC, when the spacecraft was 151,000,000 kilometres from Earth. At this point the spacecraft was running on an ellipse closer to the planet than during the initial orbit; the polar orbit ranged between 66,000 kilometres over Venus. The periapsis was located above the North pole, it took 24 hours for the spacecraft to travel around the planet. Venus Express studied the Venusian atmosphere and clouds in detail, the plasma environment and the surface characteristics of Venus from orbit, it made global maps of the Venusian surface temperatures. Its nominal mission was planned to last for 500 Earth days, but the mission was extended five times: first on 28 February 2007 until early May 2009.

On 22 November 2010, the mission was extended to 2014. On 20 June 2013, the mission was extended a final time until 2015. On 28 November 2014, mission control lost contact with Venus Express. Intermittent contact was reestablished on 3 December 2014, though there was no control over the spacecraft due to exhaustion of propellant. On 16 December 2014, ESA announced. A carrier signal was still being received from the vehicle. Mission manager Patrick Martin expected the spacecraft would fall below 150 kilometres in early January 2015, with destruction occurring in late January or early February; the spacecraft's carrier signal was last detected by ESA on 18 January 2015. ASPERA-4: An acronym for "Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms," ASPERA-4 investigated the interaction between the solar wind and the Venusian atmosphere, determine the impact of plasma processes on the atmosphere, determine global distribution of plasma and neutral gas, study energetic neutral atoms and electrons, analyze other aspects of the near Venus environment.

ASPERA-4 is a re-use of the ASPERA-3 design used on Mars Express, but adapted for the harsher near-Venus environment. VMC: The Venus Monitoring Camera is a wide-angle, multi-channel CCD; the VMC is designed for global imaging of the planet. It operates in the visible and near infrared spectral ranges, maps surface brightness distribution searching for volcanic activity, monitoring airglow, studying the distribution of unknown ultraviolet absorbing phenomenon at the cloud-tops, making other science observations, it is derived in part by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera and the Rosetta Optical and Infrared Remote Imaging System. The camera includes an FPGA to pre-process image data; the consortium of institutions responsible for the VMC includes the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center and the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering at Technische Universität Braunschweig. It is not to be confuse

Benjamin Parke was an American lawyer, militia officer, treaty negotiator in the Indiana Territory who served as a United States federal judge in Indiana after it attained statehood in 1816. Parke was the Indiana Territory's attorney general. After Indiana attained statehood, Parke served as the first United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana. In addition to his service in Indiana's territorial and state government, Parke participated in the local militia, attaining the rank of colonel under the command of William Henry Harrison, participated in the Battle of Tippecanoe during the War of 1812. Parke was active in civic and educational affairs, he was a founder of the public library at Vincennes, a founder and member of the board of trustees of Vincennes University. In 1816, he helped select the township in what became Monroe County, for the use of a state seminary, which became Indiana University in Bloomington. Parke served as the first President of the Indiana Historical Society.

Parke, the son of a farmer, was born in New Jersey on September 2, 1777. He left home at the age of twenty. In 1797 he moved to Lexington, where he read law in the office of James Brown and was admitted to the bar in 1799. Parke married Elizabeth "Eliza" Barton in Lexington; the couple had two children, a son, a daughter, Sarah. Sarah married Abram Hite of Louisville and had one son. After Sarah died and his wife raised their grandson. Parke's son and grandson died during a cholera epidemic in 1833. Around 1800–1801, Parke and his wife moved to Vincennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory, where he engaged in private law practice 1804. After Parke befriended William Henry Harrison, the governor of the Indiana Territory, he served in several positions in the territorial government. Governor Harrison appointed Parke as Attorney General of the Indiana Territory, he served in that capacity from 1804 to 1808. In 1805, Parke was elected as one of the two Knox County representatives to the lower house of Indiana's first territorial legislature, which met at Vincennes on July 20, 1805.

Parke, a federalist and Governor Harrison's political ally, was a supporter of slavery and indenturing laws in the territory that were being debated at the time. In 1805, the Indiana territorial legislature elected Parke as its first territorial representative to the United States House of Representatives. Parke was reelected to the post in 1807 and served in the 9th and 10th United States Congresses from December 12, 1805, until March 1, 1808. Parke resigned prior to his appointment as a territorial judge and accepting a position on Governor Harrison's staff. While serving in Congress and in response to requests from his constituents, Parke asked that body to amend the Northwest Ordinance to pass legislation permitting slavery in Indiana, but the effort was unsuccessful. President Thomas Jefferson appointed Parke as a Judge for the Indiana Territory in 1808, he served in that post until 1816. During Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812, Parke joined the Indiana Territory's militia and rose through the ranks as a captain and major, before attaining the rank of colonel and serving on the staff of General Harrison, the territorial governor.

Parke served as a captain of a company of Indiana Light Dragoons and fought at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. He was promoted to major and took command of the cavalry after Major Joseph Hamilton Daveiss was killed on November 7, 1811. After the war, Parke returned to his position as a territorial judge. In 1816, he was named presiding judge of the Indiana Circuit Court, First Judicial Circuit, served in that role until 1817, when President James Madison appointed him as a United States federal judge. In 1816, Parke and Thomas Posey negotiated a treaty with the Kickapoo people. Two years President Madison appointed Parke, Lewis Cass, Indiana governor Jonathan Jennings as commissioners to negotiate the Treaty of Saint Mary's with the Lenape, the Miami, other tribes. Under the terms of this treaty, the Delaware gave up their right to occupy land in Indiana, while the Miami agreed to relinquish more than seven million acres of their tribal lands in Ohio and Indiana. During the move towards statehood, Parke served as one of the forty-three delegates, one of the five from Knox County, who attended the constitutional convention at Corydon in June 1816.

During the convention Parke was one of the leaders of the federalist minority that opposed statehood. Parke was among the nine-member committee that drafted Article V of the constitution, which outlined the judicial branch of state government. Parke served as chair of a select committee to redraft the article's initial version, which defined the state's Supreme Court, circuit courts, other courts that the Indiana General Assembly might choose to establish. Parke was among the signers of the new constitution, which the delegates adopted on June 29, 1816, during the final day of the convention; the Indiana General Assembly designated Parke as one of the three presiding judges

Strawbs in Concert is a live album by English band Strawbs. The tracks are taken from recordings of two BBC In Concert programmes from 1973 and 1974. "New World" "Sheep" "Tears and Pavan" "The Hangman and the Papist" "Benedictus" "Heavy Disguise" "The River" "Down by the Sea" "The Winter and the Summer" "Part of the Union" "Lay Down" "Autumn" "Heroine's Theme" "Deep Summer Sleep" "The Winter Long" "Out in the Cold" "Round and Round" "Hero and Heroine" "Lay a Little Light on Me" Dave Cousins – vocals, acoustic guitar Dave Lambert – vocals, electric guitar Richard Hudson – drums, vocals John Ford – vocals, bass guitar Blue Weaver – keyboards, accordion Chas Cronk – bass guitar, vocals John Hawken – keyboards Rod Coombes – drums, vocals Recorded in 1973 and 1974 for the BBC In Concert TV programme. Strawbs in Concert on Strawbsweb