Spaceflight Insider

News Archive / Tagged: ASTRO-H

  • Japan ends efforts to restore contact with Hitomi X-ray telescope

    Derek RichardsonApril 28th, 2016

    The ASTRO-H (Hitomi) telescope suffered an anomaly on March 27, resulting in the vehicle ceasing communications and separating into multiple pieces. Efforts by JAXA to restore the spacecraft were ended on April 28. The agency will now focus on investigating the cause of the incident.

  • JAXA believes there is still hope for Hitomi

    Collin SkocikMarch 31st, 2016

    On Feb. 17, 2016, JAXA launched the ASTRO-H satellite. The roughly $360 million satellite, equipped with X-ray telescopes to study black holes, encountered an event on orbit on Saturday, March 26, that caused communications with it to become spotty and it has since been imaged tumbling wildly on orbit. JAXA believes, however, that the mission might still be saved.

  • JAXA’s Astro H falls silent as troubling radar data shows debris

    Jason RhianMarch 27th, 2016

    The ASTRO-H telescope, launched on Feb. 17, was supposed to study exotic phenomenon across the universe. On Saturday, March 27, the future of the mission fell into doubt as controllers on the ground lost contact with the spacecraft and radar showed a loss in altitude – and debris in the spacecraft's vicinity.

  • Ad ASTRO-H! H-IIA thunders to orbit with JAXA observatory

    Jason RhianFebruary 17th, 2016

    A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA 204 rocket lifted off at 5:45 p.m. JST (03:45 a.m. EST, 08:45 GMT) from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center located off the southern coast of Japan. The flawless flight of the ASTRO-H X-ray observatory is the first of two planned to take place from Tanegashima this year.

  • Poor weather delays flight of H-IIA rocket with ASTRO-H

    Jason RhianFebruary 11th, 2016

    JAXA has decided to delay the flight of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA 204 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center due to encroaching rough weather. A new launch date/time of the ASTRO-H space-based observatory has not been announced.

  • ISAS, JAXA to reveal the secrets of the universe with ASTRO-H

    Jason RhianFebruary 11th, 2016

    JAXA and ISAS have the ASTRO-H observatory ready to be sent on its way atop a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA 204 rocket from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center located off the Coast of the Southern Japanese mainland.