JAXA announces that the Epsilon 4 launch encapsulating the innovation satellite technology is scheduled on January 17, 2019. The launch window is 9:50:20 a.m. through 9:59:37 a.m., in Japan Standard time.

At approximately 4 pm, January 17, the HTV7 return capsule was delivered to the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center.

Alexander Gerst used the robotic arm to release the HTV transfer vehicle-7 (HTV7) at 1:50 am, November 8. Robotics ground controllers used the Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to unberth the HTV7 from the international outpost of the International Space Station. (ISS) HTV7’s thrusters were fired to move the spacecraft a safe distance from the station.

JAXA releases the Story at guide tour "Voyager" on "Google Earth" provided by Google. The Story tells you about the launch of the rocket or JAXA's satellites easily and visibly so that everyone, from children to adult, can enjoy learning them.
In the Story, you can learn about the rocket and the satellites during your tour to space by the rocket and viewing the Earth from the satellites.
Let's fly over the space from your PC, Smartphone or Tablet!

BepiColombo mission successfully took off at 10:45:28 am, October 20, in Japan Time, 2018. From the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, the ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's MIO, Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter were launched aboard the Ariane 5 rocket at 10:45:28 pm in local time, 2018.

The launch and flight went well – 26 minutes and 47 seconds into launch, as planned, both orbiters were deployed. BepiColombo has entered its 7-year long voyage to Mercury. It places MPO and MIO in the orbits around the planet, embodying the world’s first mission to send two spacecraft to monitor Mercury. As the spacecraft approaches Mercury, the electric propulsion module completes its job and is shed. MPO and MIO are then put into the orbits. MIO first, followed by MPO. Both are tasked to do scientific observations of the planet and the environment.

MPO, Mercury Planetary Orbiter, developed by the ESA, European Space Agency and MIO, JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will launch onboard Ariane 5 rocket at 10:45:28 am, October 20 in Japan Time. (10:45:28 pm in local French Guinea Time)

YouTube JAXA Channel

Starting from 10 am, JAXA will cover the launch live from Guiana Space Centre, European Spaceport in Kourou.
Live streaming is available of late night footage from the Kourou spaceport.

Time of Launch Coverage: 10 am – noon, Japan Time
Scheduled Time of Launch: 10:45:28 am, Saturday, October 20, Japan Time
(10:45:28 pm, Friday, October 19, local French Guinea Time)
Location: Guiana Space Centre, European Spaceport in Kourou

*Note that the launch schedule and the time of live coverage are subject to change, due to mission status updates.

Launched on December 23, 2017 from the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, Global Change Observation Mission – Climate (GCOM-C) entered and completed its in-orbit checkout phase, during which the science instruments and satellite systems are evaluated. The in-orbit checkout mission was through by March 2018, ensuring the product verification.
The sample data of the GCOM-C standard product is now available on JAXA’s global portal system. (G-Portal) The data is yet to be validated, so the physical quantities are in the process of refining.
The GCOM-C data product will be released in December 2018.

The H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 7 with cargo transporter to the International Space Station, the KOUNOTORI7 (HTV7) aboard lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 2:54:27 on September 23. (Japan Standard Time)
The launch vehicle flew smoothly and 14 minutes and 59 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the HTV7 was confirmed. The HTV7 will gradually get closer to and will be berthed at the ISS. Don’t miss the live docking coverage on our website.

We will hold a symposium themed France-Japan Space Cooperation as part of the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Japan.

ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, JAXA Astronaut Norishige Kanai and Soichi Noguchi will join the symposium, and they will describe their mission and have a panel discussion.

We are sincerely looking forward to you attending the symposium.

Outline
19 September 2018 14:00-17:00 At : Yasuda Auditorium, The University of Tokyo
Organized by : CNES/Embassy of France, JAXA and School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Language : Japanese and English (Simultaneous interpretation) (text captioning system is available)
Admission Fee :  Free
Seating Capacity :  900 seats   * First-come, first-served basis.
Registration :  Please register here.

Program
14:00             :  Opening remarks,
14:00-14:45 :  Mission report by Astronaut Thomas Pesquet
14:45-15:00 :  Mission report by Astronaut Norishige Kanai
15:00-15:30 :  Cross Talk, Pesquet / Kanai on significance value of ISS incl. discussion with audience
15:30-15:50 :  Pause
15:50-16:05 :  Expectation for the next mission, by Astronaut Soichi Noguchi
16:05-16:50 :  Panel discussion "From the low earth orbit to the Lunar, Mars exploration"
16:50-16:55 :  Delivery of OFK (Official Flight Kit), from School of Engineering to Astronaut Soichi Noguch
16:55-17:00 :  Closing remarks

Hayabusa2 arrived at asteroid Ryugu on June 27, after which the spacecraft remained at a distance of about 20km (the Home Position) to continue to observe the asteroid. During this time, the spacecraft was maintaining a hovering altitude of 20km above the asteroid surface.
In the week of July 16, operations were begun to lower this hovering altitude, eventually bringing the spacecraft to less than 6km from the asteroid surface. One of the images taken at that time is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1:
Asteroid Ryugu from an altitude of 6km. Image was captured with the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) on July 20, 2018 at around 16:00 JST.
Image credit ^※: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST.

※Please use the displayed credit when reproducing these images. In the case where an abbreviated form is necessary, please write "JAXA, University of Tokyo & collaborators".

ALWIN, Airport Low-level Wind Information was prized with the President's award of the Japan Aeronautical Engineers Association. Since last April, the award-winning technology, co-developed by JAXA and Japan Meteorological Agency, has been in operation at Haneda and Narita International airports.

ALWIN accurately measures low level wind direction, speed, wind shear, turbulence, and associated data along approach and departure paths and provides visual alerts to pilots and other aviation staffers in text and image. The system improves safety in aircraft arrivals and takeoffs and helps reduce delays. Evaluated positively by airliners, ALWIN is in use right at the heart of the air traffic services.

Development is underway of SLOWIN, SOdar-based Low-level Wind Information, a less costly counterpart of ALWIN. Testing has been conducted since last year at local airports to validate this new system.

Slated for launch in Japanese fiscal 2018, JAXA's GOSAT-2, Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite: later renamed Ibuki is designed to accurately measure carbon dioxide and methane concentrations. This high-resolution satellite data is expected to offer consistent information that helps identify the sources of emission and absorption of atmospheric carbon monoxide.
The GOSAT-2 project team sees the need to attract public attention to the crucial GOSAT-2 missions and global warming, the issue that the missions will further elucidate. Their desire took shape in the Care for Earth project. In cooperation with ASATSU-DK INC., NPO City Watch Square and 7days kitchen opened the Future Cuisine Restaurant Ibuki, a pop-up restaurant only for a day in Omotesando, Tokyo.
The Future Cuisine Restaurant Ibuki won the final PR Bronze Lion of the 65th annual Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, held on June 18 through 22, 2018 in Cannes, France.

Brian May, the lead guitarist from the British rock band, Queen, has created a stereoscopic image of Ryugu from photographs captured with the ONC-T camera onboard Hayabusa2, so that the asteroid can be viewed in three dimensions. Brian May is an astronomer, with a doctoral degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London. He has a strong interest in planetary defense or space guard, which considers the potential threat to the Earth from meteorites. As part of this, May is a core member of "Asteroid Day", that began about three years ago to increase awareness of asteroids and action that can be taken to protect the Earth.

Figure:
Image to be used with red/blue stereo glasses.

Hayabusa2 is close to arriving at asteroid Ryugu. After a journey of around 3.2 billion km since launch, our destination is finally near. Two small objects will soon meet in outer space 280 million km from the Earth.

Figure :
Asteroid Ryugu photographed by the ONC-T on June 24, 2018 at around 00:01 JST.
Credit : JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST

The ONC-T (Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic) captured images of Ryugu on June 17, 2018 at around 15:00 JST and June 18 at around 06:00 JST. At 15:00 JST on June 17, the distance to Ryugu was approximately 330 km, which had decreased to 240 km by June 18 at 06:00 JST.

The following figures show the original images taken by the ONC-T, without any pixel smoothing. The order of the photographs is not chronological, but show the sequential rotation of the asteroid. The change in distance is compensated by keeping the size of the asteroid constant through the image set.

Using the ONC-T (Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic), asteroid Ryugu was photographed continuously from June 14, 2018 at around 21:00 JST through to June 15, 2018 at around 05:10 JST. Figure 1 shows a looped animation of the 52 captured images.

The distance to Ryugu when the images were captured was between about 700 - 650 km. In these photographs, Ryugu is approximately 12 - 13 pixels in diameter. The animation in Figure 1 shows the photographs after image processing has been performed to smooth between the pixels so that the asteroid’s surface looks smooth.

Hayabusa2 is steadily approaching asteroid Ryugu. Figure 1 shows a photograph of Ryugu taken on June 13, 2018 with the ONC-T (Optical Navigation Camera-Telescopic) from a distance of about 920km. The celestial body shining brightly in the center of the frame is Ryugu. The movement of Ryugu (in comparison to the background stars) can be seen by comparing this image with those taken on June 6 and June 10. The brightness of Ryugu is now about -6.6 mag (astronomical magnitude: a logarithmic scale for the apparent brightness for an object).

JAXA selected MIO as new name for the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) to be launched this Japanese fiscal year through March 2019. 6,494 responded to the two-month-long MMO renaming project. JAXA conveys gratitude for their participation. Starting this month, JAXA is giving the godparents a token of appreciation.
MIO and MPO^* aboard Ariane 5 will launch together, separate after landing, observe Mercury in cooperation for a year.

*The MPO, Mercury Planetary Orbiter does observations of the planet's surface and internal composition. MIO, Mercury's magnetic field and magnetosphere.

Image: An artist rendering of MIO and Mercury

On June 3, 2018, ion engine operation was completed and the final approach to the asteroid begun. By photographing the asteroid with the Optical Navigation Camera, optical navigation (precisely “hybrid navigation using optical and radiometric observations”) can be used to approach Ryugu while accurately estimating the trajectory of the spacecraft and asteroid.

JJ-FAST team is developing a next-generation deforestation detection algorithm (version 2) to increase number of deforestation detection, and improve detection accuracy. To validate deforestation sites detected by the new algorithm, a JJ-FAST team visited some sites in Brazil on Feb. 22, 2018. When the team accompanied by IBAMA (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renovaveis) arrived at one site, a bulldozer was mowing down trees. Two forest loggers were caught red-handed, and the bulldozer was legally seized on site by IBAMA.

The team and IBAMA officers also visited another site with ongoing deforestation on Feb. 26, 2018. When the team reached the site around noon, they found two large bulldozers connected with a massive metal chain left unattended. Bulldozers and chain mowing down trees is the typical method to clear-cut large areas quickly. Soon, three workers returned and stood in amazement when they found we waiting for them next to their bulldozers. The men were seized, and the machinery was confiscated on site by IBAMA. Being aware of the possible detection by optical satellites, they looked like they were wondering how their illegal deforestation activities were found under the cloud cover in rainy season.

This validation activity was supported by two kind IBAMA researchers, Dr. Edson Sano and Dr. Daniel Freitas, and IBAMA local staffs in Sinop and Junia. The JJ-FAST team is very grateful for this wonderful cooperation with our counterparts in Brazil.

We are looking for the right name for the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO)*, whose upcoming launch is in October 2018, that will give a relatable and familiar nickname so that everyone can follow our journey to Mercury. The person who suggests the selected name will recieve a certificate and souvenir!
We are also searching for people all over the world who are passionate about BepiColombo's journey to explore Mercury to provide messages, illustrations, audio, video and other media. A selection of these will be recorded and loaded onto the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) before it begins the journey towards our Solar System's innermost planet.
We are looking for messages as glowing as the incandescent planet of Mercury!
* BepiColombo is a joint mission between ESA (the European Space Agency) and JAXA, led by ESA, to explore Mercury. The mission consists of two planetary orbiters: JAXA's MMO (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter) and ESA's MPO (Mercury Planetary Orbiter).

In January 6, 2018, Iranian company's tanker "SANCHI" (Panama flag) collided with a cargo ship (Hong Kong flag) in the East China Sea off the east coast of China and a fire broke out. The tanker drifted into Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) not being extinguished and exploded and sank at the sea about 315 km west of Amami Oshima in the afternoon of 14th. Oil is draining from the sunk tanker.
JAXA observed near the sinking point with synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR-2) equipped with “DAICHI-2” (ALOS-2) at 03:33 UTC on January 18th. Figure shows observing area with PALSAR-2 including the location of the sunk tanker. At the east side of the location, the Kuroshio flows from the southwest to the northeast (from Quick Bulletin of Ocean Conditions, Hydrographic and oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard).
In the future, we will continue observing near the accident site with our satellite.

Exactly at 2:03 pm (Japan Standard Time) at the JAXA Uchinoura Space Center, JAXA experimented SS-520 No. 5 launch with a microsatellite TRICOM-1R aboard.
After liftoff, flight of SS-520 No. 5 proceeded normally. Around 7 minutes 30 seconds into flight, TRICOM-1R separated and was inserted into its target orbit.
SS-520 No. 5 launch experiment was the second attempt following the failure of SS-520 No. 4, which occurred in January 2017. Identification of the error and subsequent countermeasures resulted in the success of No.5 launch experiment. The No. 5 launch experiment was carried out to demonstrate the technology used for small satellite launcher.

At 6:06:11 a.m. (Japan Standard Time) January 18, 2017, JAXA launched Epsilon-3, the third Epsilon launch vehicle which encapsulates NEC Small radar satellite "ASNARO-2", from the JAXA Uchinoura Space Center. The launch occurred on time. The launch and flight of Epsilon-3 took place normally. Approximately 52 minutes 35 seconds into the flight, the separation of ASNARO-2 proceeded, with confirmation as successful.

JAXA has released some observation images on the Earth acquired by the Global Change Observation Mission - Climate "SHIKISAI" (GCOM-C). The SHIKISAI was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center at 10:26:22 on December 23, 2017 (Japan Standard Time). These images are obtained by using the test radio wave transmitted from GCOM-C/SGLI on January 1st to 6th, 2018 (JST).
Image: Color composite image around the Okhotsk Sea Ice