Second time lucky for Japan’s Venus orbiter?

The first try was way back on December 7, 2010, when a malfunction of the main engine sent the spacecraft back into orbit around the Sunday.

The object – designated 1994 JR1 – was around 3.3 billion miles (5.3 billion kilometers) from the sun at the time the photos were taken, the statement said.

"They were cautiously optimistic before the burn, but confident". "We have to wait another two days to confirm the orbit". He is is a NASA-sponsored participating scientist on the Akatsuki mission. At 23:51 UT (6:51pm ET), the spacecraft will start firing a set of four Reaction Control System thrusters.

It spins in the opposite direction of most planets. Now, five years later, engineers at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed the wayward Akatsuki spacecraft is now officially orbiting Venus. The failure overheated and destroyed much of the main engine.

This means the craft will be thousands – rather than hundreds – of miles away from Venus.

The Akatsuki spacecraft has successfully entered the orbit of Venus.

"The orbit period is 13 days and 14 hours". If it does, observations will begin in April and they will last two years. "We can not present a precise estimate". These smaller engines are normally used to make minor adjustments to the probe's orientation, rather than major changes to its trajectory.

Mission managers put the probe into hibernation to extend its lifespan as it revolved around the sun, using the time before its next encounter with Venus this week to develop a recovery plan. While the maneuvers appear to have done no harm to the probe, it will be another couple of days before JAXA has data to tell if Akatsuki is actually in orbit. But Akatsuki's controllers do not know yet if the craft is where it needs to be.

The probe was launched in May 2010 by an H-IIA rocket.

Akatsuki, designed by JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Sagamihara with the aim of solving the mystery of Venus' dense, cloudy atmosphere, carries five cameras to carry out ultraviolet to infrared photography.

The crucial engine burn involved four of the spacecraft's eight thrusters.

Assuming the arrival was a total success, Akatsuki is now the only spacecraft currently operating at Venus.

If it succeeds, Akatsuki will be the first spacecraft to study Venus since the European Space Agency's Venus Express hit end-of-life and crashed into the atmosphere a year ago.

This image, illustrated before Akatsuki took its second shot at Venus, depicts a scene very much like what happened as it fired its thrusters on December 7.

Source: Second time lucky for Japan's Venus orbiter?