The Last Spacecraft Orbiting Venus Has Officially Died

Earth’s lone connection to Venus is over. After losing contact a year ago, The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has officially declared the Akatsuki spacecraft dead, ceasing operations after coming to terms with the unlikelihood of a recovery. 

Launched back in 2010, the Akatsuki’s mission was to study weather patterns on our hellish neighboring planet. The $300 million probe — also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter — suffered an engine failure during its initial approach to Venus and spent five years of drifting around the Sun before the JAXA figured out how to rescue the craft and finally insert it into Venus’ orbit in 2015. 

Measuring at only five feet on each side, the cube-shaped probe launched with six instruments to execute its research, all of which survived that initial setback. However, two infrared cameras ceased working during 2016. 

Even with its early misfortune, the Akatsuki long surpassed its intended lifespan of 4.5 years. The 15-year mission collected eight years of data that has resulted in 178 journal papers and counting; the four remaining instruments stayed in operation until JAXA lost communication with Akatsuki in April of 2024. 

It was the closest connection us earthlings had to Venus, and marks Japan’s first successful exploration of another planet. According to NASA, seven other orbiters have made successful trips around Venus — four from the USSR, two from the United States, and one from the European Space Agency. The ESA’s Venus Express was the last probe to orbit the planet prior to Akatsuki; it arrived there in 2006, the agency lost contact with it in 2014, and the mission was officially ended the following month.

However, Venus may not stay alone forever. 

NASA’s DAVINCI mission, slated to launch in 2030, is designed to study the atmosphere with plans to land. And the agency’s VERITAS, scheduled to launch in 2031, will orbit the planet to study its surface and interior, like Akatsuki. (The fate of each mission remains up in the air with Trump’s ongoing and impending NASA budget cuts.)

But even if they fall through, there’s a backup plan: the ESA is planning to launch an orbiter called EnVision in the 2030s, designed to observe the planet’s atmosphere, surface and interior.

Until then, it’s ciao for now to Venus from us on Earth.

More from space: Space Junk Now Almost Constantly Crashing Down to Earth

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