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Mission
Kind: Solar sail technology
State: Successful
Place: Venus
Operator: JAXA
Date
Start:
Duration: 5 years launch to last contact in 2015
Mission Ending
Last Contact: 20/mai/15
Rocket
Rocket: H-IIA 202
Kind: JAXA
Mass: 315 kg (694 lb)
Launch Site: Tanegashima, LA-Y
Flyby
1º Flyby: Venus
Orbit
Reference System: Heliocentric orbit
Lander
"The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing." - Paul Theroux
IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) experimental spacecraft. The spacecraft was launched on 20 May 2010, aboard an H-IIA rocket, together with the Akatsuki (Venus Climate Orbiter) probe and four other small spacecraft. IKAROS is the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar sail technology in interplanetary space. On 8 December 2010, IKAROS passed by Venus at about 80,800 km (50,200 mi) distance, completing the planned mission successfully, and entered its extended operation phase.
