Tag: JAXA
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Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid mission checks out
Artist’s concept of the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft. Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita Three months into an interplanetary cruise expected to last three-and-a-half years, Japan’s $300 million Hayabusa 2 mission is in good health as it begins an ion-powered pursuit of an asteroid to return a piece of it to Earth. The robotic spacecraft is already traveling more…
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Japanese craft to get second chance after missing Venus in 2010
Artist’s concept of the Akatsuki spacecraft at Venus. Credit: JAXA/Akihiro Ikeshita Five years after a balky valve kept it from entering orbit around Venus, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe is again approaching the sweltering planet for another shot at completing its science mission in December, officials said Friday. The robotic spacecraft has spiraled around the inner…
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H-2A rocket boosts Japanese radar spy satellite into orbit
射点に向けて固定しているカメラが多いので、飛行中はあまり撮ってないのですが、少ない中から１枚。 pic.twitter.com/snjo2anBtv — 柴田孔明 (@koumeiShibata) February 1, 2015 Japan launched a new satellite Sunday to reinforce the country’s fleet of orbiting spy platforms charged with monitoring its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific. The spacecraft carries a sophisticated radar payload designed to survey the globe night and day — and in all weather conditions — from an…
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Japanese rocket launch postponed by poor weather
File photo of an H-2A rocket rolling to the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center. Credit: JAXA A threat of thick clouds kept a Japanese H-2A rocket from launching Thursday with a government-owned radar reconnaissance satellite. Japanese officials did not set a new target launch date, and said the liftoff would be rescheduled based…
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CRS-5: Dextre grabs CATS from the belly of a Dragon
Canada’s multi-tasking robot, Dextre, successfully removed the CATS (Cloud-Aerosol Transport System) payload from the unpressurised trunk of the CRS-5/SpX-5 Dragon on Thursday morning. The payload was handed over to the Japanese Experiment Module, Kibo, marking the first “handover” between the Canadian robot and the JAXA arm. Dextre letting the CATS out of the bag: The latest…
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NASA, JAXA reach asteroid sample-sharing agreement
Artist’s concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Scientists from the United States and Japan plan to share asteroid specimens from the OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa 2 sample return missions under an agreement signed by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The missions will explore…
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Japanese H-IIA kicks off Hayabusa 2’s asteroid mission
Japan has successfully launched the second sample return mission to an asteroid, with a JAXA H-IIA rocket carrying the Hayabusa 2 probe into orbit on the first leg of its journey to the asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3. Launch occurred on schedule at 04:22 UTC on Wednesday from Pad 1 of the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at JAXA’s…
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Japan set to launch asteroid sample return mission
The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is mated to the top of an H-2A launcher at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Credit: JAXA Japan is readying an H-2A rocket for liftoff Tuesday to kick off an audacious six-year roundtrip journey a carbon-rich asteroid, drop a fleet of landers to its surface, collect primordial rock samples, and…
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Japanese HII-A successfully launches ALOS-2 mission
Japan conducted its second launch of the year on Saturday, with an H-IIA rocket orbiting the second Advanced Land Observation Satellite, Daichi-2 – better known as ALOS-2. Liftoff from the iconic Tanegashima Space Centre was on schedule at 12:05 local time (03:05 UTC). HII-A Mission: Daichi-2 (ALOS-2) is a radar imaging spacecraft which will be…
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Japan’s HTV-4 successfully berths with the ISS
The Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle-4 (HTV-4) automated resupply spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) following its launch into space from the Tanegashima space center in Japan on August 3. HTV-4’s capture was at 7:22 AM EDT, ahead of berthing at 11:38 AM EDT, which marked a large delivery of critical supplies and…