Tag: JAXA

  • Live coverage: Soyuz capsule brings home three-man crew

    Live coverage of the Expedition 55 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

  • Space station crew closes out 168-day mission

    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft touches down in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA flight engineer and a Japanese physician-astronaut strapped into their Soyuz ferry ship early Sunday, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to…

  • Reconnaissance satellite launched by Japanese H-2A rocket

    今回のH-IIA F38打ち上げは、地表付近では陽炎が凄くて、ゆらゆら揺れて見えましたが、上空に行くとくっきり見えますね。 pic.twitter.com/0zhyRXYvQk — 柴田孔明 (@koumeiShibata) February 27, 2018 A Japanese H-2A rocket launched Tuesday with a clandestine government-owned satellite to collect sharp-eyed views of North Korea’s missile developments and other global hotspots. The 174-foot-tall (53-meter) rocket fired its hydrogen-fueled LE-7A main engine and two solid rocket boosters at 0434 GMT Tuesday (11:34 p.m. EST…

  • Japanese H-IIA launches IGS Optical 6 satellite

    Japanese H-IIA launches IGS Optical 6 satellite

    A Japanese reconnaissance satellite rode to orbit Tuesday aboard the country’s H-IIA carrier rocket. Liftoff, from the Tanegashima Space Centre, occurred at the opening of a fourteen-minute window at 12:34 local time (04:34 UTC). Tuesday’s launch deployed IGS Optical 6, part of the optical imaging component of Japan’s Joho Shushu Eisei (JSE) – or Information…

  • Japanese spy satellite launch delayed by poor weather forecast

    File photo of a Japanese H-2A rocket. Credit: JAXA A bad weather forecast has prompted Japanese space officials to delay the launch of an H-2A rocket with a high-resolution government-owned reconnaissance satellite by at least 48 hours until Monday night, U.S. time. Ground crews at the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan’s primary spaceport in the southwestern…

  • Souped-up sounding rocket lifts off from Japan with tiny satellite

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) on Feb. 3 after confirmation of successful flight. Video credit: JAXA A modified sounding rocket originally designed to loft science instruments on high-altitude suborbital arcs blasted off Saturday from the Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan and soared into orbit to become the world’s smallest satellite launcher. The…

  • Asteroid missions on track to reach their destinations in 2018

    Artist’s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft at asteroid Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita Pioneering spacecraft from NASA and the Japanese space agency promise to reveal two unexplored asteroids later this year, officials said Wednesday, beginning surveys that will culminate in daring descents to capture samples for return to Earth, where eager scientists await a hands-on…

  • Japanese radar satellite launched aboard third Epsilon booster

    Japan’s Epsilon rocket delivered a civilian-operated radar imaging satellite to orbit Wednesday on a mission to demonstrate the performance of a new commercial spacecraft design and collect all-weather imagery for use in emergencies, mapping and global surveillance. Developed by NEC Corp., the ASNARO 2 satellite launched Wednesday was developed with $144 million from the Japanese…

  • Japan’s ASNARO-2 launched on third Epsilon flight

    Japan’s ASNARO-2 launched on third Epsilon flight

    Japan’s experimental radar imaging satellite ASNARO-2 was launched Thursday aboard the third flight of the Epsilon rocket. Liftoff – from the Uchinoura Space Centre – occurred at the opening of a twenty-four-minute, two-second window opening at 06:06:11 local time (21:06 UTC on Wednesday). Japan’s first launch of 2018, Wednesday’s mission was originally scheduled towards the…

  • Japanese H-IIA rocket launches GCOM-C mission

    Japan launched the second satellite of its Global Change Observation Mission Saturday. The GCOM-C satellite lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Centre atop an H-IIA rocket at the start of a 22-minute window that opened at 10:26:22 local time (01:26 UTC). Saturday’s launch, also lofting the Super-Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS), was Japan’s seventh of…