Midori
H-II
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Mission
Midori
Type: Earth Science
Primary applications of ADEOS (Advanced Earth Observation Satellite), which has been renamed Midori after reaching orbit, include monitoring global environmental changes such as maritime meteorological conditions, atmospheric ozone, and gases that promote global warming. ADEOS was also expected to play a vital role in developing more sophisticated inter-orbit communications and platform technology for the satellite of tomorrow. ADEOS was launched by H-2 Launch Vehicle No.4 on August 1996 and provided a large volume of data containing valuable information about our environment atmosphere, ocean and land for about 10 months until it suddenly got out of control on 30 June 1997 because of the structural damage in its solar array paddle.
Rocket
H-II – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Family: H-II
Length: 49 m
Diameter: 4 m
Launch Mass: 260 T
Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 10060 kg
The H-II was manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with the first launch on 1994-02-03. H-II has 6 successful launches and 1 failed launches with a total of 7 launches. The H-II rocket was a Japanese satellite launch system which flew seven times between 1994 and 1999 with 5 successes. It was developed by NASDA in order to give Japan a capability to launch larger satellites in the 1990s. It was the first two stage liquid fuelled rocket Japan made using only domestic technologies.
Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Type: Government
Abbreviation: JAXA
Administration: Administrator: Hiroshi Yamakawa
Founded: 2003
Launchers: H-II
Country: JPN
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan’s national aero-space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and the launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions, such as asteroid exploration and possible manned exploration of the Moon. JAXA launch their Epsilon vehicle from the Uchinoura Space Center and their H-II vehicles from the Tanegashima Space Center.
