Earth Observation
AKATSUKI (PLANET-C)
NonoperationalEarth ObservationHeliocentric
Akatsuki , also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO) and Planet-C, was a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) space probe tasked with studying the atmosphere of Venus. It was launched aboard an H-IIA 202 rocket on 20 May 2010, but failed to enter orbit around Venus on 6 December 2010. After the craft orbited the Sun for five years, engineers successfully placed it into an alternate Venusian elliptic orbit on 7 December 2015 by firing its attitude control thrusters for 20 minutes, making it the first Japanese satellite to orbit Venus.
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Launch
- Launch date
- May 20, 2010 at 09:58 PM UTC
- Launch site
- Tanegashima, Japan
- Launched by
- H-IIA 202 →
- Operator
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
- Mission
- Akatsuki (Planet-C)
- Launch record
- View full launch →
Trajectory
- Regime
- Interplanetary — Heliocentric
- Reference body
- Heliocentric
Identity
- COSPAR (Int'l)
- 2010-020D
- NORAD catalog №
- 36576
- Object type
- Payload
- Owner / operator
Japan- Status
- Nonoperational
End of mission
- Fate
- No longer operational — remains in orbit as inactive.
- Final status
- Nonoperational