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Engineers lose contact with Japan’s Akatsuki Venus orbiter

According to a terse announcement by Japan’s space agency JAXA on May 29, 2024, engineers from its Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) have lost contact with Japan’s Akatsuki Venus orbiter.

ISAS has lost contact with Akatsuki after an operation in late April due to an extended period of low attitude stability control mode, and is currently making efforts to reestablish communication with the spacecraft.

Akatsuki has had a spotty and complex life. It was launched in 2010, but failed to enter Venus orbit as planned in two attempts in 2010 and 2011 because of a failure in its main engine. Engineers then improvised and — after orbiting the Sun for several years — were able to get it into Venus orbit in 2015 using only its attitude thrusters. Its primary mission ended in 2018, but it continued to study Venus’ atmosphere since.

Assuming Akatsuki is not recovered, as of now there are no operating orbiters at Venus. A mission by the private company Rocket Lab is expected to launch before the end of this year, followed by an orbiter from India in 2026. A NASA mission meanwhile is in limbo and will likely never fly, due to budget decisions at the agency, which took its funding and gave it to the troubled Mars Sample Return mission.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

One comment

  • Edward

    Robert wrote: “… which took its funding and gave it to the troubled Mars Sample Return mission.

    And how is that going?

    Sorry, Robert. That was intended to be a rhetorical question for sarcastic emphasis. As we all know, NASA’s over-budget monstrosity projects eat up too many other projects that may be even more worthwhile than the voracious monstrosities. Considering that MSR is on the verge of (in the process of?) crashing and burning, this is a perfect example. We spend a lot of money and we don’t get to explore Venus, but we also lose the intended exploration of Mars, too.

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