BBC World News: Japan's Akatsuki mission lifts off for planet Venus 21 May 2010 1446

[G777GUN]

That spacecraft is probably a transformer made by the japanese. Not impossible for them.

[candr]

Unfortunately the ship over shot its mark and captured by the sun's gravitational pull. They will try again when in position in 6 years.

[Neosaigo]

@candr It really sucks when a space mission fails. :\

[candr]

@Neosaigo True, but Venus is a difficult planet to get to, more then it is to Mars, I'm told. About 1/3 of the 20 or so missions by the U.S. and Russia failed in the early years, so Japan is in good company. If man quit after the first failed try, then he would still be in a dark cave entrance just looking at the evening star.

[potheticman]

Prepares to enter orbit

[KaminariKatta]

they must have watched too much naruto...

[Rahavin1]

Ive really been looking for a vid on the vehicle's sail system. Ive only been able to find vids in Japanese, which I cant hear, as Im deaf to many non english languages (although I can hear some spanish, german, and thai).