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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11945244
Japan's Akatsuki probe fails to enter Venus orbit
Japan's first space probe bound for Venus has failed to enter the planet's
orbit, the country's space agency says.
The space craft, Akatsuki, is believed to have passed Venus after it failed
to slow down sufficiently.
Akatsuki, launched about 200 days ago, fired its main engine just before
0000 GMT on Monday to allow the planet's gravity to capture the probe.
A previous interplanetary space probe launched by Japan in 1998 to orbit
Mars was also a failure.
Akatsuki briefly lost contact but was now back in communication and
functioning normally as it headed off around the sun, officials said.
"Unfortunately, it did not attain an orbit," said Hitoshi Soeno of the space
agency, Jaxa.
"But it appears to be functioning and we may be able to try again when it
passes by Venus six years from now."
The failure was disappointing for the 200,000 names carried by the craft in
a bid to raise awareness of Japan's space programme.
Akatsuki was launched to the inner-world by an H-IIA rocket in May. Its
goals included finding definitive evidence for lightning and for active
volcanoes.
The Japanese probe had been due to conduct joint observations with the
European Space Agency's Venus Express craft, which arrived at the planet in
2006. |
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