REAL LIFE NEWS: VENUS PROBE FAILS TO BRAKE IN TIMEby HazedFrom a successful spacecraft, to a sadly unsuccessful one. Japan's Akatsuki probe was bound for Venus but it has failed to enter the planet's orbit because it didn't slow down enough. The probe was launched about 200 days ago. It fired its main engine last Monday, so that the planet's gravity could capture the probe, but it did not slow enough to go into orbit. All may not be lost: it's now going to head around the sun and in about six years it'll pass Venus again, so the Japanese space agency, Jaxa, will be able to try again. Read more about Akatsuki here. |