Weather Improved For An Early Friday Launch

The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) has launched a mission to Venus that is carrying a probe to study the planet's atmosphere as well as a spacecraft that will be powered only by a solar sail.

The vehicles launched from the Tanegashima space center in southern Japan on schedule at 0658 local time (Thursday 2158 GMT). A previous attempt had been scrubbed three days earlier due to bad weather.

"It was an almost perfect launch," Teruaki Kawai, a space business manager with the rocket's manufacturer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, told a televised press conference from the island of Tanegashima.

The international news service AFP reports that the rocket carried a probe dubbed "Akatsuki", which means "Dawn" in Japanese. It is a satellite designed to study the Venusian atmosphere. Also on board is the "Ikaros" spacecraft which is designed to travel interplanetary distances using a 46 by 46 foot solar sail no thicker than a human hair. It is partially coated with solar cells to generate electricity.

IKAROS Image Courtesy JAXA

On the JAXA website, the agency says "If we can verify this navigation technology through the Ikaros, it will mark the first spectacular achievement of its kind in the world." JAXA envisions the solar sail as part of a hybrid ion drive that, when combined with photon acceleration to realize fuel-effective and flexible missions.

FMI: www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html