was the second Japanese artificial satellite which was put into orbit, after the country's first satellite Ohsumi. The satellite was sent into orbit on 16 February 1971. Just like Ohsumi, the launch was a project by the

Institute of Space and Astronautical 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 ...

at 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 ...

(UTokyo). The name of the satellite means "light blue", which is the school colour of UTokyo. Three more satellites with the same name were subsequently launched by the university. The last of them was launched on 17 February 1980.

References

University of Tokyo Satellites formerly orbiting Earth Satellites of Japan Spacecraft launched in 1971 Asian spacecraft stubs {{Japan-spacecraft-stub