* Astronomy

After launch on an M-V-3 launch vehicle Nozomi was put into an elliptical geocentric parking orbit with a perigee of 340 km and an apogee of 400,000 km. The spacecraft used a lunar swingby on 24 September and another on 18 December, 1998 to increase the apogee of its orbit. It swung by Earth on 20 December 1998 at a perigee of about 1000 km. The gravitational assist from the swingby coupled with a 7 minute burn of the bipropellant engine put Nozomi into an escape trajectory towards Mars. It was scheduled to arrive at Mars on 11 October 1999 at 7:45:14 UT, but a malfunctioning valve during the Earth swingby resulted in a loss of fuel and left the spacecraft with insufficient acceleration to reach its planned trajectory. Two course correction burns on 21 December used more propellant than planned, leaving the spacecraft short of fuel.
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