2001–2012: Planetary Exploration Becomes Persistent
IKAROS
First interplanetary solar-sail demonstration.
Era 4 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- year known only: 2010
- Lead / partner
- Japan
- Target
- Venus flyby
- Category
- Solar-sail technology
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- H-IIA 202
- Mass
- 310 kg
- Orbit / trajectory
- Heliocentric orbit
Why it happened
IKAROS flew during 2001–2012: Planetary Exploration Becomes Persistent, as part of Japan's work toward venus flyby. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First interplanetary solar-sail demonstration.
Results
First interplanetary solar-sail demonstration.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Andrzej Mirecki, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · license: cc-by-sa-3.0 (source, checked 2026-08-24)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
