JAXA infrared satellite Akari: Removal of the Cover of the Telescopeand Operation Schedule (Forwarded)

Public Affairs Department
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Marunouchi Kitaguchi Building,
1-6-5, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8260
Japan
TEL:+81-3-6266-6400

Contact:
Prof. Hiroshi Murakami
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAXA
+81-994-67-2211

April 13, 2006

Akari: Removal of the Cover of the Telescope and Operation Schedule

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce
that the 21st Scientific Satellite "Akari" (ASTRO-F) has been
smoothly carrying out initial operations, and its major events for the
post-launch phase have been successfully completed, with the cover of
the observation equipment, the telescope, being removed (the release
of the aperture lid.)

The "Akari" was launched by the M-V Launch Vehicle No. 8 (M-V-8) at
6:28 a.m. on February 22, 2006 (Japan Standard Time, JST
[2128 UTC Feb. 21]) from the Uchinoura Space Center (USC.)

JAXA has been carefully re-examining operation procedures because of
trouble in the two-dimensional solar sensor. After we completed the
repair work and the operational verification test of the onboard
software for stable attitude control, we started the operation for
releasing the aperture lid at 4:55 p.m. on April 13, 2006 (JST
[0755 UTC]) from the ground station at the USC. Telemetry then
confirmed that the operation was successfully carried out.

Both the power generation and attitude of the "Akari" are stable, and
the observation system is also working normally.

After the final verification test for the observation equipment, we
plan to report the results of initial image acquisition in mid May.

About Infrared Imaging Satellite "AKARI"(ASTRO-F),
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/mis...ri/index.shtml