The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced a new launch time and date for its weather delayed Akatsuki mission to Venus and the worlds first solar sail. The launch was scheduled to occur Tuesday morning but was cancelled due to low cloud.
Launch is scheduled to occur this Friday morning at 7.58 am AEST. The launch will be webcast on the Internet. After launch, the Akatsuki and Solar Sail (Ikaros) spacecraft will separate and travel on independent trajectories to Venus. The Akatsuki craft is expected to arrive at Venus on December 7 2010.
An animation demonstrating how the solar sail on the Ikaros craft will be deployed can be found here on the New Scientist website.
Go here for the previous post on this launch on this site. A BBC Science story on the two missions can be found here. A timeline describing the initial stages of the launch can be found here.
