Akatsuki is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency robotic space probe launched in 2010 to study the atmosphere and climate of Venus. The spacecraft main engine failed during its first attempt to enter orbit around Venus in December 2010, sending it instead into an orbit around the Sun, but mission engineers used its smaller attitude control thrusters to successfully place it into Venus orbit on a second attempt five years later, in December 2015. Once in orbit, Akatsuki became the first spacecraft to study the puzzling super rotation of Venus atmosphere, which circles the planet far faster than the planet itself rotates.
Facts
Spacecraft Type Manufacturer Connections
Operated By
Akatsuki is a JAXA mission, Japan's Venus Climate Orbiter.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Orbits
Akatsuki entered orbit around Venus on December 7, 2015, after an earlier failed attempt in 2010, and remains in orbit conducting atmospheric observations.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Sources
1. Akatsuki (spacecraft) (Wikipedia)
Infobox, Spacecraft type
Venus orbiter
Infobox, Launch date
21 May 2010, 21:58:22 UTC
Infobox, Manufacturer
NEC Space Technologies
Body text, Mission end section
Operation was terminated officially on 18 September 2025
View the SourceWikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundation- Operated By: JAXA, Wikipedia: Akatsuki (spacecraft), lead section
- Orbits: Venus, Wikipedia: Akatsuki (spacecraft), lead section
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