Hope fades quickly for Earth’s only mission to Venus as controllers provide devastating updates on 14-year-old lonely satellite

HOPE is fast fading for Earth’s last remaining mission to Venus after controllers lost contact with the Japanese spacecraft after 14 years.

JAXA, Japan’s space agency, confirmed that it was unable to establish communications with the satellite orbiting Venus in late April.

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“We have since implemented several measures to restore service, but communication has not yet been restored,” the agency wrote in a statement Wednesday.

“We are currently working to restore communication.”

The agency said it will soon announce its next steps.

The spacecraft, nicknamed Akatsuki, was launched aboard an H2-1 rocket in 2010.

It was Japan’s first interplanetary mission in more than a decade, after an electrical failure shut down the country’s Nozomi Mars mission in 1998.

Akatsuki defied all odds to reach Venus, let alone to successfully report atmospheric data.

The spacecraft’s main engine failed on the final leg of its journey, leaving the Akatsuki in orbit around the Sun rather than its target planet.

Scientists ejected a 65g oxidizer to lighten the spacecraft, then used altitude control thrusters to push it into Venus orbit – where it has remained ever since.

JAXA began reading Akatsuki data in 2016.

Akatsuki is the only operational spacecraft on Venus.

Although it dangles alongside two retired solar orbiters from NASA and the European Space Agency.

lunar landing

It’s a disappointing and historic year for Japan’s ventures in space.

The nation successfully landed a rover on the Moon earlier this year, becoming the fifth country to land on the Moon.

However, the “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon” (SLIM) stopped sending signals back to Earth within hours of landing.

This was not Japan’s first attempt.

In November, the country attempted a lunar landing with its OMOTENASHI lander, as part of NASA’s Artemis one mission.

JAXA, again, was unable to establish stable communication with the mini probe.

Then, in April last year, Japan’s ambitions to become the first country to commercially land on the Moon were dashed after contact was lost with ispace’s Hakuto-R spacecraft.

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