tokyo

Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science last week launched PLANET-B, the nation's first Mars probe, from Kagoshima Space Centre on the southernmost tip of the island of Kyushu. The successful launch marks the beginning of Japanese efforts to join the United States and the former Soviet Union in the exploration of Mars.

The spacecraft will follow an elliptical orbit around Earth and the Moon until December, when it will begin its journey of 700 million km to Mars. PLANET-B, renamed Nozomi after the launch, is due to enter the martian atmosphere in October 1999.

The probe will spend two years observing interactions between the planet's atmosphere and ionosphere and the solar wind. The spacecraft carrying the probe also has a small aluminium plate bearing the names of more than 270,000 people following the institute's nationwide signature campaign (see Nature 391, 833; 1998).