Mitsubishi Heavy's Data Relay Satellite Launched Successfully

Tanegashima, Kagoshima Pref., Nov. 29 (Jiji Press)--Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. <7011> successfully launched an optical data relay satellite on an H-2A rocket on Sunday.

The H-2A Launch Vehicle No. 43 blasted off from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima at 4:25 p.m. (7:25 a.m. GMT). The satellite subsequently entered the planned orbit.

The data relay satellite will demonstrate high-speed intersatellite communication technologies being developed by JAXA.

Placed in stationary orbit, the satellite will use optical laser-based high-speed communication technologies to receive data from an earth observation satellite at an altitude of hundreds of kilometers and transfer the received data to a station on Earth. As the satellite will constantly be above Japan, it can send data to the station in the country for a longer time.

The satellite launched this time is also equipped with a data relay devise for information-gathering satellite operated by of the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center of the Japanese government.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]