Japan launches Venus mission, solar sail
Posted: Fri, May 21, 2010, 7:47 AM ET (1147 GMT)
An H-2A rocket successfully launched a Venus orbiter mission and a small solar sail demonstrator early Friday. The H-2A lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 5:58 pm EDT Thursday (2158 GMT Thursday, 6:58 am local time Friday) and released the Akatsuki and Ikaros spacecraft 27 and a half minutes later. Akatsuki ("Dawn"), formerly known as Planet-C, will enter orbit around Venus late this year on a mission to study the planet's dense atmosphere and its weather patterns. Ikaros will deploy a 20-meter-long solar sail to demonstrate the ability of the sail to accelerate and navigate. The launch was postponed three days because of poor weather at the launch site.
An H-2A rocket successfully launched a Venus orbiter mission and a small solar sail demonstrator early Friday. The H-2A lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 5:58 pm EDT Thursday (2158 GMT Thursday, 6:58 am local time Friday) and released the Akatsuki and Ikaros spacecraft 27 and a half minutes later. Akatsuki ("Dawn"), formerly known as Planet-C, will enter orbit around Venus late this year on a mission to study the planet's dense atmosphere and its weather patterns. Ikaros will deploy a 20-meter-long solar sail to demonstrate the ability of the sail to accelerate and navigate. The launch was postponed three days because of poor weather at the launch site.| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, April 5
Can orbital data centers help justify a massive valuation for SpaceX?
TechCrunch — 1:15 pm ET (1715 GMT) AAC Clyde Space satellites and subsystems flying on Transporter-16 Rideshare Mission
AAC Clyde Space — 12:58 pm ET (1658 GMT) GomSpace Draws EUR 7 Million Under Shareholder Credit Facility to Support Strategy Execution
GomSpace — 12:56 pm ET (1656 GMT) Perfect timing: Aussie quantum clock innovation becomes a world-first capability
Australian Space Agency — 12:54 pm ET (1654 GMT) Voyager Awarded Contract With Icarus Robotics
Voyager Space — 12:54 pm ET (1654 GMT) |
