Posted: Wed, Jun 18, 2003, 10:35 AM ET (1435 GMT)

The Franco-Russian company Starsem announced Tuesday that it had won a contract from the European Space Agency to launch the Venus Express spacecraft. Venus Express, a Venus orbiter modeled closely after the recently-launched Mars Express orbiter, will be launched on a Soyuz from Baikonur, Kazakhstan in November 2005. Starsem also launched Mars Express and the Beagle 2 lander on a Soyuz earlier this month. The value of the launch contract was not announced.