Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched its first spacecraft to another planet July 3, 1998. Nozomi ("wish" or "hope") was intended to orbit Mars and study the atmosphere and solar wind. During its first flyby of Earth for a gravitational assist, Nozomi suffered a malfunctioning valve which depleted much of its fuel and left Nozomi with insufficient acceleration to reach Mars. Two more course corrections used more propellant than planned, leaving Nozomi even more depleted.
JAXA planned to put Nozomi into a heliocentric orbit for four years and make two Earth flybys to gain momentum and reach Mars at a slower velocity.
In April 2002, Nozomi was approaching Earth for another gravity assist when solar flares damaged its onboard communications and power systems. An electrical short in a power cell caused the remaining hydrazine fuel to freeze. Fortunately the fuel thawed out by the time it reached Earth, due to its proximity to the sun, and made a successful flyby in December 2002.
Another Earth flyby occurred in June 2003, but in December 2003, efforts to orient Nozomi to prepare for a main thruster orbital insertion at Mars failed. The mission was abandoned. The small thrusters were fired on December 9, 2003 so Nozomi would approach Mars to a distance of 1000 km and would not impact the surface. The spacecraft remains in a heliocentric orbit.
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