Japanese space probe Akatsuki enters Venus orbit on second attempt

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Wednesday confirmed that the country's maiden mission to Venus, Akatsuki, has successfully swung into the Venusian orbit.

Tokyo: Japan's maiden mission to Venus, Akatsuki, had successfully entered into the orbit around Venus after its first failure five years ago.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed on Wednesday, adding that Akatsuki's success marks the first time a Japanese space probe has swung into the orbit of another planet.

According to the Japanese space agency Jaxa, Akatsuki or or Venus Climate Orbiter occurred in an elliptical orbit, which is 400 and 440 000 kilometers between of the planet and bentigt 13 days of flight time.

“The probe is functioning properly,” JAXA project manager Masato Nakamura said during a press conference.

Nakamura added the probe would shift to full observation of Venus in April.

Carrying six types of observation equipment, Akatsuki is designed to study the thick clouds shrouding Venus in three dimensions and how its strong winds, estimated to be faster than 360 kph, cause an atmospheric phenomenon known as super-rotation, in which the atmosphere rotates much faster than the planet.