JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Anomaly in the Communication Mission Equipment
of the Engineering Test Satellite (ETS-VIII, or KIKU No. 8)

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology(NICT)

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have been conducting a test on the turning on of power for the communications equipment onboard the Engineering Test Satellite (ETS-VIII, or KIKU No. 8). At 11:08 a.m. on January 30, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST), an abnormal status was detected when power was turned on the Low Noise Amplifier (LNA, designed by NICT).

Accordingly, the NICT set up a "KIKU No.8 Investigation team" (led by NICT President Makoto Nagao,) and NICT and JAXA jointly established the "Joint Study Team for Investigating the Cause of the KIKU No.8 Communications Equipment Malfunction" (led by NICT Executive Director Shingo Ohmori.)

We are investigating the cause as well as necessary measures to fix the problem based on acquired telemetry data and ground test data accumulated prior to the launch.

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology(NICT)