JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Successful Intersatellite Communication Experiment
Between Midori II (ADEOS-II) and ESA's ARTEMIS

National Space Development Agency of Ja

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) successfully conducted the intersatellite communication experiment between the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II), "Midori II", and the Advanced Relay and Technology Mission (ARTEMIS) of the European Space Agency (ESA) from March 28 to 30, 2003 (Japan Standard Time, which is used hereinafter). This experiment was to use both Ka-band (26 GHz) for data transmission and S-band (2 GHz) for command transmission.

Midori II had already had the successful communication experiment with the Data Relay Test Satellite (DRTS), "Kodama" on February 19, 2003. This is the second inter-satellite communication experiment for Midori II and the first-ever inter-satellite communications between Japan and Europe.

The result of this successful communication experiment has established the on-orbit communications between the Japanese and European space agencies, and will lead to both a flexible building of the future earth observation system and possible contribution to the promotion of an earth environment observation mission through international cooperation.

At present, NASDA is conducting the comprehensive test of Midori II as a final stage of the initial functional verification. NASDA will correct and verify the obtained data for its full operation after the transition to its observing operation in mid-April.