A Japanese spacecraft has achieved orbit around Venus, only five years late and on its second attempt.
The Venus Climate Orbiter, called Akatsuki after the Japanese word for dawn, was launched on 20 May 2010. It arrived at Venus on 6 December 2010 and began the rocket burn that would place it into a four-day orbit around the planet.
Unfortunately, a sticky valve in the engine meant instead of a 12-minute burn, the rocket fired for less than three minutes. So Akatsuki sailed past the planet and off into space again.
Spacecraft operators got to work diagnosing the problem and coming up with new plans. They found that in five years time, they would be able to manoeuvre the craft close enough to the planet to try again. But instead of using the main engine this time, they would employ the smaller thrusters used for keeping the spacecraft upright.
On Wednesday evening, the Japanese Space Agency, Jaxa, confirmed everything had gone to plan. Akatsuki had been captured by Venus’s gravity and returned its first pictures of the planet.
The spacecraft is now on an elliptical orbit that stretches from 400km above Venus to 440,000km. It takes 13 days and 14 hours to complete one circuit.
Now the science mission can begin. When far away from the planet it will look at the global characteristics of the atmosphere. When nearby, it will study layers in the atmosphere.
Akatsuki will also be looking for active volcanoes. While their presence on Venus has long been suspected, they were not seen by previous spacecraft.
