The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is in the final weeks of the launch campaign to explore the planet Venus with the Akatsuki spacecraft or previously known as the Planet-C spacecraft. Currently planned for launch on May 17, 2010, the $220 million mission will arrive at Venus in December 2010 for a mission of two years or more.
The JAXA Akatsuki spacecraft will join The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft to explore the cloud shrouded planet five years ago. The ESA probe entered Venusian orbit on 11 April 2006 and has extended remote sensing operations into 2012. The European science at Venus will aid the JAXA probe to expand human knowledge of Earth's sister planet. Together the two spacreaft will contribute to science like those which proceeded them to Venus.
The JAXA space agency history and plans have been recently documented in the book Emerging Space Powers: The New Space Programs of Asia, the Middle East and South-America by Brian Harvey, Henk H. F. Smid, and Theo Pirard. The book provides insights into the JAXA Hayabusa asteroid, Akatuski Venus, and other JAXA missions as well as five other national space programs of those yet to place humans in space nonetheless launching satellites to orbit of Earth and/or the Moon.
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