August 24, 2025
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Breaking News
  • [ August 23, 2025 ] Live coverage: NASA, SpaceX to launch Cargo Dragon on a mission to boost space station orbit Falcon 9
  • [ August 22, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB Falcon 9
  • [ August 22, 2025 ] SpaceX launches Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane to demo laser communications, quantum navigation Falcon 9
  • [ August 20, 2025 ] Launch preview: SpaceX to launch X-37B military spaceplane on Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Falcon 9
  • [ August 20, 2025 ] Firefly Aerospace explores launching its Alpha rocket from Japan Alpha

H-2A F30

News

Attitude control failures led to break-up of Japanese astronomy satellite

April 18, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Hitomi X-ray observatory, beset by an attitude control problem that has disrupted communications since March 29, may have shed one of its power-generating solar panels or deployable telescope in orbit and is spinning too fast to contact ground controllers, officials said.

News

U.S. military rules out collision as cause of Hitomi satellite’s woes

March 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

As Japanese ground controllers struggle to restore communications with a tumbling space telescope in orbit, the U.S. military’s space surveillance experts have eliminated one cause for the satellite’s troubles.

News

Japan’s newest space telescope goes silent

March 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan has lost contact with the newly-launched Hitomi space telescope, and ground observations indicate the satellite has shed debris and may be tumbling in orbit more than 350 miles above Earth.

H-2A

Photos: H-2A rocket soars on groundbreaking astronomy mission

February 19, 2016 Stephen Clark

Burning a mixture of super-cold liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and pre-packed solid propellant, Japan’s H-2A rocket vaulted into a deep blue evening sky over the beaches of Tanegashima Island on Wednesday with a satellite that will see the surroundings of black holes better than ever before.

H-2A

Black hole observatory launched from Japan

February 17, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan launched a pioneering observatory with X-ray vision Wednesday to peer into the mysterious, light-starved neighborhoods around black holes and study the genesis of galaxies and other cosmic mega-structures billions of light-years from Earth.

H-2A

Live coverage: H-2A rocket delivers on 30th flight

February 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

Japan’s Astro-H mission, an X-ray astronomy observatory designed to shed light on black holes and the unseen structure of the universe, lifted off aboard an H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 0845 GMT (3:45 a.m. EST) Wednesday.

H-2A

Launch of Japanese X-ray observatory postponed

February 11, 2016 Stephen Clark

The Japanese space agency said Thursday the launch of an X-ray astrophysics observatory is postponed from Friday due to a poor weather forecast at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

News Headlines

  • Live coverage: NASA, SpaceX to launch Cargo Dragon on a mission to boost space station orbit
    August 23, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg SFB
    August 22, 2025
  • SpaceX launches Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane to demo laser communications, quantum navigation
    August 22, 2025
  • Launch preview: SpaceX to launch X-37B military spaceplane on Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center
    August 20, 2025
  • Firefly Aerospace explores launching its Alpha rocket from Japan
    August 20, 2025
  • SpaceX flies 24 Starlink satellites on its 100th Falcon 9 rocket launch of 2025
    August 17, 2025
  • SpaceX schedules 10th test flight for Starship, details recent setbacks
    August 16, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    August 14, 2025
  • ULA launches Vulcan rocket on first Space Force mission
    August 13, 2025
  • Launch preview: ULA to launch first national security mission on a Vulcan rocket
    August 12, 2025
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