Reimei ('Dawn') is the in-flight name for a small Japanese satellite known during development as INDEX (INnovative-technology Demonstration Experiment), developed in-house at

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

both to serve as a demonstration of small-satellite technologies (particularly high-performance and high-accuracy attitude control) and to perform simultaneous optical and charged-particle observation of the

aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

. A notable feature is the 25 μm-thick

polyimide Polyimide (sometimes abbreviated PI) is a monomer containing imide groups belonging to the class of high-performance plastics. With their high heat-resistance, polyimides enjoy diverse applications in roles demanding rugged organic materials, suc ...

mirrors used for concentrating sunlight onto the solar arrays. It is and weighs 72 kilograms. The construction budget was $4 million. The satellite was launched into a near- Sun-synchronous 630 km orbit on 24 August 2005 as a

piggyback Piggyback, piggy-back, or piggybacking may mean: Transport * Piggyback (transportation), something that is riding on the back of something else Art, entertainment, and media * Splash cymbal piggybacking, mounting a cymbal on top of an already ...

on the OICETS launch on the Dnepr launch vehicle.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2005 Satellites of Japan Spacecraft launched by Dnepr rockets Spacecraft launched in 2005