Hakucho (also known as CORSA-b before launch; CORSA stands for Cosmic Radiation Satellite) was

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

's first

X-ray astronomy X-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of X-ray observation and detection from astronomical objects. X-radiation is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to ...

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

, developed by the

Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science , or ISAS, is a Japanese national research organization of astrophysics using rockets, astronomical satellites and interplanetary probes which played a major role in Japan's space development. Established as part of the University of Tokyo ...

(then a division of the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

). It was launched from the

Kagoshima Space Center The is a space launch facility in the Japanese town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima, Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture. Before the establishment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA space agency in 2003, it was simply called the (KSC). All o ...

by the ISAS M-3C rocket on the M-3C-4 mission on February 21, 1979 and reentered the atmosphere on April 15, 1985. Hakucho was a replacement for the

Cosmic Radiation Satellite The Cosmic Radiation Satellite (CORSA, also CORSA-A) was a Japanese space telescope. It was supposed to be Japan's first X-ray astronomy satellite but was lost due to failure of its Mu-3 launch vehicle on 4 Feb 1976. A replacement satellite Hakuch ...

(CORSA) satellite which failed to launch due to rocket failure on February 4, 1976.

Highlights

*Discovery of soft X-ray transient Cen X-4 and Aql X-1 *Discovery of many burst sources *Long-term monitoring of X-ray pulsar (e.g. Vela X-1) *Discovery of 2 Hz variability in the Rapid Burster later named Quasi Period Oscillation.

References

isas.jaxa.jp
Satellites formerly orbiting Earth X-ray telescopes Satellites of Japan 1979 in spaceflight Spacecraft launched in 1979 {{Japan-spacecraft-stub

Highlights

See also

References