Current Status of SHIKISAI/GCOM-C, Global Change Observation Mission – Climate
At 10:26:22 a.m. (Japan Standard Time, JST), December 23, 2017, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched H-IIA・F37 encapsulating SHIKISAI (GCOM-C, Global Change Observation Mission – Climate).
The reception of telemetry data at the JAXA Mingenew Station, Australia was made at 10:44 a.m. (JST), confirming SHIKISAI’s solar array deployment above Australia. After that, at 11:18 a.m. (JST), the satellite’s attitude control based on its earth sensors was confirmed by telemetry transmitted to the JAXA Santiago Station.
Images of SHIKISAI’s extended solar array wings will be available on the special website designated for JAXA’s earth observation satellites.
Special JAXA website – Earth observations satellites:
Next Press Releases
The next press release on Super Low Altitude Test Satellite “TSUBAME” (SLATS) updates will be issued approximately at 3:00 p.m. (JST), December 23.
Approximately at 2:00 a.m. (JST), December 24 the following press release will be published informing the completion of the critical operations phases* of SHIKISAI and TSUBAME.
*Critical operations phase: the phase that follows satellite’s separation from a launch vehicle, solar array deployment, and powering up of instruments for the satellite’s regular operations. The critical operations phase comes to an end at the start of the satellite’s control mode for nominal operation.
