After over a decade we have an orbiter circling Venus. Kudos to ESA for fast tracking this mission by design reuse (mars express). However ESA continues to amaze me in their seeming puposeful horrible public relations. As far as I can tell the last peep out of Venus express in terms of news releases was Jul 12. If I was a European I would be mad as hell that my tax dollars go to these missions and they are not more interactive with their discoveries. European scientists seem to prioritize hoarding information to protect their prescious publications. I think the US model is so much better. How better to get more dollars (and subsequently more missions, more science, and more papers) than to enlist the public aid through good PR. I'm proud of the interactivity of NASA's exploratory missions including the various mars missions and Cassini. I thought MRO could've done a better job showing orbital elements during aerobraking, but full expect them to be nicely interactive during the science phase.

At some point there will be another burst of papers and information from Venus Express and I look forward to it, but these guys should really rethink their connection to the public.