Japan Releases AKATSUKI's Pictures of Venus (discovery.com)

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 9, 2015 @01:23PM from the worth-a-thousand-words dept.

astroengine writes: The Japanese space agency JAXA has released a confirmation that their Venus mission Akatsuki did indeed enter orbit at Venus on Dec. 7 (JST) — releasing unprocessed images of the Venusian atmosphere as it entered orbit. The spacecraft is currently in a highly-elliptical 13-day, 14-hour orbit around the planet, coming within 400 kilometers (248 miles) at its closest point and reaching 440,000 kilometers (243,400 miles) away at its farthest. This mission has just become the most unlikely success story of 2015 after "missing" its intended Venus orbit way back in 2010.

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Re:As for why... by alantus · 2015-12-09 14:17 · Score: 5, Funny

In other words, they diverted power to the plasma manifolds.
December 7th? by ScentCone · 2015-12-09 15:10 · Score: 3, Funny

Why do the Japanese always choose December 7th to travel long distances and invade places?

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