Akatsuki

active Mission

Akatsuki is studying the atmosphere of Venus from orbit. Recovering from missed orbit insertion in 2010 and entering Venus orbit in 2015, Akatsuki is Japan's first successful mission to explore another planet.

Type

Orbiter

Launch

May 20, 2010

Target

Venus

Objective

Study weather patterns on Venus, confirm lightning in thick clouds, search for signs of active volcanism

An artist's concept of Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft nearing Venus.

Launch Date	May 21, 2010
Launch Site	Tanegashima Space Center, Tanegashima, Japan
Destination	Venus
Type	Orbiter
Status	Successful–In Progress
Nation	Japan
Alternate Names	2010-020D, Planet-C, Venus Climate Orbiter, 36576

Goals

Study weather patterns on Venus, confirm the presence of lightning in thick clouds and search for signs of active volcanism.

Accomplishments

Recovered from missed orbit insertion in 2010 and entered Venus orbit in 2015. Akatsuki is Japan's first successful mission to explore another planet.

Key Dates

May 21, 2010: Launch

Dec. 6, 2010: Venus Orbit Insertion - 1st Attempt

Dec. 7, 2015: Successful Venus Orbit Insertion

Late April, 2024: Japan reported on X (formerly Twitter) that it had lost contact with the spacecraft

In Depth

Akatsuki, which means dawn in Japanese, is studying the atmospheric circulation of Venus. Meteorological information is obtained by globally mapping clouds and minor constituents successively with four cameras at ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, detecting lightning with a high-speed imager, and observing the vertical structure of the atmosphere with radio science techniques.

The spacecraft was originally designated Planet-C, and is also known at the Venus Climate Orbiter.

The equatorial elongated orbit with westward revolution matches the Venusian atmosphere, which rotates westward. The systematic, continuous imaging observations will provide us with an unprecedented large dataset of the Venusian atmospheric dynamics. Additional targets of the mission are the exploration of the ground surface and the observation of zodiacal light. The mission complements the European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express, which orbited Venus until 2014.