Tag: Japan
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Garbage pallet jettisoned from space station will stay in orbit two-to-four years
A pallet loaded with disused batteries was jettisoned from the International Space Station’s robotic arm Thursday. Credit: NASA NASA ground controllers sent commands to the International Space Station on Thursday for release of a 2.9-ton cargo pallet loaded with old batteries, the most massive object ever jettisoned from the orbiting outpost. The garbage carrier is…
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Rubins and Noguchi assemble solar array support fixtures outside space station
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT) after end of spacewalk. STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Astronaut Soichi Noguchi works outside the International Space Station on Friday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese astronaut who last walked in space more than 15 years ago, ventured…
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Scientists thrilled with asteroid treasure returned by Japanese spacecraft
Japanese scientists found black material from asteroid Ryugu inside one of the Hayabusa 2 mission’s collection chambers (color corrected by Spaceflight Now). Credit: JAXA Japanese space agency officials said Tuesday they found a “large number” of pitch black rock and dust particles after opening a capsule returned to Earth earlier this month by the Hayabusa…
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Rocket Lab closes out year with launch of Synspective’s first radar satellite
A Rocket Lab Electron launcher takes off from New Zealand on Tuesday. Credit: Rocket Lab Rocket Lab’s seventh and final launch of the year delivered a small radar observation satellite into orbit for Synspective, a Japanese startup planning a fleet of 30 or more Earth-imaging spacecraft providing day-and-night imagery of cities around the world. The…
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The Owl’s Night Begins: Japan’s StriX-α satellite launches with Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab has launched the 17th flight of their small satellite launcher vehicle, Electron, on a mission named “The Owl’s Night Begins” after the only payload onboard: StriX-α. Liftoff occurred at 10:09 UTC (05:09 EST; 23:09 local time) on 15 December 2020 from Launch Complex 1A on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. The launch…
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Japanese asteroid sampling mission on course for return to Earth
Artist’s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft releasing its sample return capsule. Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita Six years after departing Earth, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft released a spinning capsule Saturday containing pristine asteroid material for a scorching re-entry and landing in the remote Australian outback, where teams are standing by to retrieve the specimens for analysis.…
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Japanese capsule carrying asteroid rocks lands in Australia after six-year mission
Artist’s concept of the Hayabusa spacecraft releasing it sample return capsule. Credit: JAXA An armored re-entry capsule carrying pristine specimens from an asteroid streaked into Earth’s atmosphere and parachuted to a landing in the Australian outback Saturday, bringing home extraterrestrial rocks that could hold clues to the origin of life on Earth. The Hayabusa 2…
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Live coverage: Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample return capsule lands in Australia
Live coverage of the return of Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission to Earth carrying samples collected from asteroid Ryugu. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”Video of sample capsule landing”] [tabby title=”Video of sample capsule separation”] [tabbyending]
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Japanese data relay satellite launches on H-2A rocket
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT) after confirmation of a successful launch. A Japanese H-2A rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center on Sunday. Credit: MHI A Japanese satellite designed to relay data and imagery from civilian and military Earth observation spacecraft launched Sunday aboard an H-2A rocket. The dual-use communications satellite…
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Japan launches joint military, scientific optical data relay satellite
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan plans launched an H-IIA rocket on Sunday, 29 November to deploy a top secret communications satellite to support the country’s reconnaissance and scientific programs. Liftoff occurred at the start of a two-hour window that opened at 16:25 local time (07:25 UTC or 02:25 EST) from the Tanegashima Space Center. The…