Understanding Venus Express - 1

Venus Express launched late last year is ESA's first mission to Venus. Shifting the balance ever so slightly back in Venus' favour, Venus Express will spend 500 days in Venusian orbit carrying out a range of experiments and observations.
The rocket used in the launch of the $260m mission is a 'Soyuz-Fregat'. To escape Earth's gravity, the space needs to be ejected at greater than a certain (escape) velocity. The Soyuz-Fregat rocket achieved 'inter-planetary trajectory' in three phases.
The Soyuz-Fregat rocket consists of three (main) Soyuz stages and (an additional) Fregat stage at the top onto which Venus Express is attached to.
PHASE 1: In the first nine minutes after launch, Soyuz stages take the spacecraft 190 km in a vertical ascent, with the three Soyuz stages separating one after another.
PHASE 2: First burn of Fregat engine injects Venus Express into circular parking orbit around Earth.
PHASE 3: After completing almost a circle of Earth's atmosphere, the Fregat will burn again to fire Venus Express into a hyperbolic trajectory headed towards Venus, after which Fregat separates itself.