Top Results for Jaxa

HTV-1, also designated Kounotori 1, was the inaugural flight of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, an uncrewed cargo spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It launched on an H-IIB rocket on September 11, 2009, from the Tanegashima Space Center, delivering supplies to the Inte...

The Hayabusa2 mission, developed by JAXA, successfully collected and returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This active space mission deployed a spacecraft to study the near-Earth asteroid, analyzing its composition and surface features. The returned material provides invaluable data for scientis...

ALOS-2 (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2) is a Japanese Earth observation satellite operated by JAXA and launched in 2014. Equipped with an L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor, it can observe the Earth's surface day and night, even in adverse weather conditions. The spacecraft provides h...

The SELENE mission, formerly known as Kaguya, is a Japanese space exploration project operated by JAXA. It deployed an orbiter to map the Moon in unprecedented detail. The mission’s high-resolution imagery and video data significantly advanced our understanding of lunar geology and surface features....

Hinode, meaning 'sunrise,' is a solar observation satellite developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with NASA and the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council. Launched in September 2006, it carries three instruments: the Solar Optical Telescope, X-Ray Teles...

ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite), also called Daichi, was a JAXA Earth observation satellite launched on an H-IIA rocket in January 2006 from Tanegashima, Japan. It carried three instruments: PRISM for panchromatic stereo mapping at 2.5-meter resolution, AVNIR-2 for multispectral imaging, an...

Kaguya, officially named SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), was a Japanese lunar orbiter launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on September 14, 2007. The spacecraft carried 14 scientific instruments to study the Moon's surface, gravity field, and electromagnetic env...

Suzaku, originally designated ASTRO-EII, was a Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite launched in 2005 and operated through a collaboration led by JAXA. Its instruments studied high-energy objects and processes, including black holes, supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei, and the hot gas within ga...

SELENE, formally designated as Kaguya, was a Japanese lunar exploration mission operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Launched in September 2007, it was the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program, consisting of a main orbiter and two smaller relay and VLBI satellites. Th...

The H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), nicknamed Kounotori, was an uncrewed cargo spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It was designed to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) with pressurized and unpressurized cargo, water, and experiment racks. Between 2009 and...

The Hayabusa mission, developed by JAXA, successfully retrieved microscopic samples from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010. This marked a historic first, as it was the initial space mission to return material collected from an extraterrestrial body. Scientists utilize these samples to study the compositi...

Arase, also known as ERG (Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace), is a satellite launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on December 20, 2016. It studies the dynamics of Earth's radiation belts and the mechanisms behind space storms in geospace. The spacecraft obser...

QZSS-1 (Michibiki-1), launched by JAXA in 2010, was Japan's first Quasi-Zenith Satellite System spacecraft, designed to augment GPS signals over Japan and the Asia-Oceania region from a quasi-zenith orbit.

QZSS-2 (Michibiki-2), launched by Japan in 2017, was the second satellite in the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, helping establish the four-satellite constellation that began providing Japan with near-continuous domestic coverage.

Suisei, meaning "comet" in Japanese, was an unmanned space probe developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. Launched in 1985, the spacecraft was tasked with observing Halley's Comet during its 1986 inner solar system passage. It carried an ultraviolet imaging system to study the...

XRISM (X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is a space observatory jointly developed by JAXA and NASA, launched in September 2023. The satellite is equipped with a high-resolution X-ray microcalorimeter and an X-ray imager, specifically designed to measure the extreme high-energy phenomena occurr...

Hinode, which translates to "sunrise" in Japanese, is a solar observation satellite developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with NASA and the UK Space Agency. Launched in September 2006, the spacecraft is designed to study the Sun's magnetic fields and dynamic phe...

Sakigake was an uncrewed space probe launched by Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in January 1985. It holds the distinction of being Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft. Along with its sister probe, Suisei, Sakigake was part of an international fleet of spacecraft deployed to...

Kaguya, officially designated as SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), was a lunar orbiter mission developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Launched in 2007, the spacecraft was tasked with collecting detailed scientific data about the Moon's origin and evolution. It car...

QZSS-3 (Michibiki-3) is a geostationary satellite launched by Japan in 2017 as part of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, providing stable coverage over the Asia-Oceania region alongside the quasi-zenith orbit satellites.

The Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), known as ASTRO-D before launch, was a Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite launched in February 1993. It was equipped with X-ray telescopes using CCD detectors, making it the first X-ray satellite to use CCD technology for imaging and spect...

Suzaku was a Japanese space telescope developed for X-ray astronomy by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in collaboration with institutions including NASA. Launched in 2005 as Astro-E2, it carried imaging spectrometers and a hard X-ray detector for studying energetic objects and processes, incl...

IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) was an experimental spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Launched in 2010 alongside the Akatsuki Venus probe, it became the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar sail technology in d...

Yohkoh, originally designated as the Solar-A mission, was a Japanese solar observation satellite launched in 1991. The spacecraft was specifically engineered to observe high-energy phenomena on the Sun, capturing X-ray images of solar flares and the corona. The mission represented a collaborative ef...

The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) is a robotic space mission currently in development by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission is designed to survey Mars's two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and to collect and return a surface sample from Phobos to Earth. By analyzing these samples...

SLIM was Japan's lunar lander built by JAXA to demonstrate pinpoint landing, making Japan the fifth country to soft-land on the Moon. It successfully touched down on January 19, 2024, achieving a precise landing within 100 meters of its target despite landing upside down due to an engine anomaly.

Akatsuki, also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, is a JAXA spacecraft launched in 2010 to study the atmospheric dynamics of Venus. After its initial orbital insertion failed, JAXA successfully inserted it into a highly elliptical orbit around Venus in 2015, where it continues to observe the planet...

Akari, originally known as ASTRO-F, was an infrared astronomy satellite developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Launched in 2006, the space observatory was equipped with a 68.5-centimeter cryogenically cooled telescope to survey nearly the entire sky in infrared, near-infrared, a...

Geotail was a joint Japanese and United States space mission launched in 1992 to investigate Earth's magnetosphere, especially the long magnetotail formed on the night side by interaction with the solar wind. The spacecraft measured magnetic fields, electric fields, plasma, and energetic particles w...