In December 2010, Japan’s Venus Climate Orbiter spacecraft “AKATSUKI” (aka Planet-C), after five and a half months traveling through space, failed to enter orbit around Venus due to a faulty thruster nozzle. Lacking the ability to reduce its velocity AKATSUKI sailed right past the cloud-covered planet, eventually entering orbit around the sun. Shortly afterward JAXA mission engineers were able to determine the cause of the problem and develop work-arounds for a second attempt at orbit insertion.
Now, five years later, that second — and final — chance will arrive on Monday, Dec. 7.
The supermassive black hole is 40 million times as massive as the sun and powers a quasar that existed 700 million years after the Big Bang.
The asteroid zoomed by Earth at a perfectly safe distance of around 1.8 million miles (2.9 kilometers).
Images show surprise changes to the spacecraft as it interacted with the atmosphere.
