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Japan Launches Solar Observation Satellite |
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Japan’s latest M-V solid-fuel rocket carried the 900 kg. satellite to the orbit from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, which is located 1,000 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, according to Japanese press reports.
JAXA, Japan’s space agency, confirmed on its web site that the satellite separated from the rocket and its solar panels have been deployed.
Solar-B was developed in cooperation by Japan, Britain and the United States and incorporates a set of optical, extreme ultraviolet and X-ray instruments.
Solar-B is a more advanced version of Solar -A, which was operated internationally between 1991 and 2001.
An M-V solid-fuel rocket, Japan's last, carrying the satellite lifted off from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on schedule at 6:36 a.m. The Saturday liftoff was to be M-V rocket’s last launch. JAXA earlier this year decided to stop producing M-V rockets in fiscal 2006 and replace them with cheaper rockets beginning in the next fiscal year, the reports said.
Scientists hope the satellite will help them understand the origin and consequences of active phenomena that take place in the corona by surveying the visible surface of the sun, the agency said, adding it will be able to observe the sun continuously for eight months a year.
The SOLAR-B is set to start full-scale observations around November by achieving an altitude of 630 km.
The satellite was nicknamed Hinode, meaning sunrise in Japanese, in the hope it will open up a new era of solar physics at JAXA. The agency plans to use the satellite for at least three years.
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