The Last Spacecraft Orbiting Venus Has Officially Died

Earth’s lone connection to Venus is over. After losing contact a year ago, The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has officially declared the Akatsuki spacecraft dead, ceasing operations after coming to terms with the unlikelihood of a recovery.

Launched back in 2010, the Akatsuki’s mission was to study weather patterns on our hellish neighboring planet. The $300 million probe — also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter — suffered an engine failure during its initial approach to Venus and spent five years of drifting around the Sun before the JAXA figured out how to rescue the craft and finally insert it into Venus’ orbit in 2015.

Measuring at only five feet on each side, the cube-shaped probe launched with six instruments to execute its research, all of which survived that initi