`NEVER GIVE UP HOPE.'

Mumbai: Sure it was a dawn of a new space era and the message was absolutely clear---`never give up hope,'

And this important message came from Japan's historic mission to Venus called Akatsuki which means dawn.

Folks you may wonder about the significance of this message coming from a space mission, and why I am passionate

and obsessed with this flight. In the last one week I have printed important stories about this mission from the web, including the blogs

from the Planetary Society written by Venus expert, Sanjay Limaye, sent from the Sagamihara mission operations control

room. He was there providing live coverage.

The story of this mission goes back to 2010 when it was launched. Everything was a `go' and the flight controllers were

happy. The role of this mission was to study the Venusian atmosphere.

Then, the crucial and nail-biting moment arrived. This was on December 6 2010. On this day Akatsuki was to have

entered the Venusian orbit. Flight controllers were at their edge and understandbly too. Having been present during

India's ground-breaking Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) at Isro's hi-tech mission operations complex in the early hours of

September 24,2014, in Bengalaru, I know the feelings of the team during this what may be called the ``make or break''

moment.

The Akatsuki flight controllers were keeping their fingers crossed and some were praying. The main engine of

of Akatsuki was fired and it worked. There was a sense of relief among the flight team. But, then what happened? Three minutes into

the planned 12-minute burn the engine stopped and the much-awaited Venus orbit insertion (VOI) failed. The flight

controllers were terribly disappointed. A major Japanese interplanetary mission had failed. This happened for the

second time because even the earlier mission to Mars,Nozomi, had suffered a set back. Atleast for the moment,

Japan seemed to be having no luck with interplanetary missions.

After the Akatsuki failure, the mission managers placed it in a hiberation mode while it revolved around the sun. They

then decided to put into place a recovery plan.

And the hope lay with a 35-year-old trajectory expert Chikako Hirose, a woman, who slogged 24X7 to work out the

plans. She has been quoted as saying that in the last five years she hardly attended to the needs of her family.

Her hard work finally paid off almost five years to the day when the mission failed.

In the early hours of December 7 2015 (IST), the four small thrusters of Akatsuki were activated for 20 minutes and

flight controllers were waiting anxiously. What will happen? Yes, it worked! It was a historic moment in global space

history because this was the first time when a mission which had failed, was recovered five years later almost on

the same day. Congrats to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and particularly Chikoke Hirose.

According to Jaxa, the use of the thrusters has not placed Akatsuki in its earlier intended orbit, but the space agency is

confident that it will accomplish much of its science goals.

What is the message from the Akatsuki mission? Never give up hope.