Colin Wilson (Oxford) Venus Express legacy and the future of Venus scientific exploration The European Space Agency's Venus Express satellite was launched just over ten years ago; after arrival at Venus in April 2006 it successfully conducted science observations at Venus for almost a decade before exhausting its propellant and burning up in Venus atmosphere in January 2015. It addressed a wide range of targets at all altitudes in Venus' atmosphere, from atmospheric dynamics and chemistry to upper atmosphere studies and solar wind interaction. Its solar, stellar and radio occultation investigations in particular have provided a far more detailed view of mesospheric processes and thermal structure than had been obtained from previous missions. Finally, the greatest legacy of the Venus Express mission may be the tantalising evidence it has provided that there may be active volcanism present on the surface of Venus today. A new spacecraft has arrived at Venus in Dec 2015: Japan's "Akatsuki", or Venus Climate Orbiter. This small satellite carries a suite of cameras designed to study the meteorology of Venus at a number of altitude levels. Its near-equatorial orbit will yield data complementary to those from the polar-orbiting Venus Express. Akatsuki also carries a high-speed lightning camera which may provide optical detection of lightning flashes. After Akatsuki, there are no confirmed missions, but many proposals for spacecraft to investigate Venus' geological history. The VERITAS and EnVision orbiters would deploy high resolution radar to study past and present volcanic and tectonic activity, and map infrared thermal emission from the surface searching for volcanic hotspots. Another approach, taken by DAVINCI entry probe or the EVE balloon proposal, is to constrain the formation and evolution of Venus through accurate measurement of noble gas and light element isotopic composition. Meanwhile, a rich set of ground-based Venus observations is providing a backbone to the observation of Venus, validating and complementing spacecraft observations - a good example of which is the co-ordinated observations between CFHT/ESPADONS, IRTF/TEXES and the Akatsuki orbiter, being performed this week.