September 24, 2025
Japan’s space agency has officially concluded its Akatsuki mission—also known as Planet-C or the Venus Climate Orbiter—shutting down operations after over a decade of exploring Earth’s hot, swirling neighbor. The announcement marks the end of humanity’s only active presence orbiting Venus, as the probe lost contact in April 2024.
A Mission of Persistence and Discovery
Akatsuki was launched in 2010 with lofty goals: to study Venus’ atmosphere, its weather systems, cloud behaviors, and even possible volcanic activity. The mission’s journey wasn’t smooth. Shortly after launch, a key engine failure meant the spacecraft missed its initial chance to enter orbit around Venus. But mission engineers refused to abandon it. Using auxiliary thrusters and a series of corrective maneuvers, Akatsuki eventually achieved orbit in late 2015, five years after its launch.
From then on, Akatsuki delivered scientific returns far beyond its original design life. It mapped cloud formations in ultraviolet and infrared, observed lightning, tracked atmospheric movements, and helped scientists better understand why Venus’ atmosphere rotates so rapidly—a phenomenon called “super-rotation.” It also detected mountain wave patterns in the atmosphere: huge, stable atmospheric gravity waves caused by Venus’ topography and winds.
The Final Chapter: Loss of Contact
In late April 2024, while performing attitude control tasks, Akatsuki stepped into a low-precision mode for maintaining its orientation. This mode persisted for a prolonged period and ultimately led to the loss of communication. All recovery efforts since then have failed. Given that the probe had long outlived its design lifespan and was already in its later stage of operation, the agency decided in September 2025 to terminate the mission.
With this decision, no operational spacecraft now orbit Venus—leaving a gap in continuous, close-up monitoring of the planet’s atmosphere.
Legacy and What Comes Next
Akatsuki’s long service period allowed scientists to amass a wealth of data. Key achievements include:
- Continuous imaging of Venus’ clouds in multiple wavelengths, leading to insights about atmospheric chemistry and dynamics.
- Studies of lightning and airglow, helping fill in the understanding of Venus’ electrical and ultraviolet activity.
- First application of Earth-style meteorological data assimilation techniques to Venus’ atmosphere.
Looking forward, several missions are in the pipeline to fill the void. NASA plans include the DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions, both designed to probe Venus more deeply, while European agencies have their own proposals. These will carry forward the work started by Akatsuki and continue the push to understand why Venus evolved so differently from Earth, despite being similar in size.
Final Thoughts
Akatsuki’s mission is a testament to perseverance in space exploration: overcoming technical failures, delays, and outlasting its expected lifespan. Although its orbit has now gone silent, the data it returned will fuel Venus research for years to come. The end of its operations marks both a pause and a pivot toward future missions. As we look ahead, the scientific community will build on its legacy, eager to send new explorers to unlock the remaining mysteries of our scorching planetary neighbor.
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