Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on September 18 that it has terminated operations of space probe Akatsuki, ITmedia reports. The spacecraft, which studied the orbit of Venus for nearly a decade, is famous for “taking Miku Hatsune to space.”
Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki was launched on May 21, 2010. Leading up to the big day, JAXA conducted a PR campaign inviting people from around the world to send handwritten messages and drawings they want to send to Venus. Amidst this, VOCALOID fans organized an initiative to send Miku Hatsune to space, gathering over 13,000 messages and illustrations of her. The messages were printed onto small aluminum plates and attached to the probe, serving as balance weights for its center of gravity.
Akatsuki had a turbulent journey – after it was launched, it suffered an engine failure and was unable to enter Venus’s orbit. It wandered in space for five years before JAXA decided to replace the main engine with secondary attitude control engine, which only had one-fifth of the thrust. Thanks to this, the probe was able to enter Venus’s orbit and start observation of the planet’s atmosphere and meteorology. Throughout the years, it took numerous valuable images and helped uncover insights into Venus’s mysterious super-rotation.
However, since 2024, JAXA became unable to establish communications with Akatsuki. Recovery missions were attempted, but with the Venus mission having far exceeded its designed duration, it was decided to bring operations to an end. Over on X, JAXA commented:
“We have concluded operations of the Venus probe Akatsuki. Since last year we have been attempting to restore communications, but determined that recovery would be difficult, and so we have drawn this chapter to a close. We sincerely thank everyone who has supported Akatsuki over the 15 years since its launch.”
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