Deployment Status of the Large Deployable Antenna Reflectors of the Engineering Test Satellite VIII KIKU No. 8

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) started to deploy the large deployable antenna reflectors (LDR) onboard the Engineering Test Satellite VIII “KIKU” No. 8″ at 5:31 p.m. on December 25 (Japan Standard Time, JST), and, after completing the deployment of the booms, we started to release the upper holding mechanism of the sending antenna at 8:02 p.m. (JST.) However, we exceeded the planned time allocation for the reflector deployment as it took longer to verify the deployment status. Therefore, we decided to suspend the deployment of the sending antenna and followed the original plan to move on to the deployment of the receiving antenna.

As a result, the receiving antenna was successfully deployed as shown in the attachment below.

We will continue the deployment work of the sending antenna after 6:00 p.m. on December 26 by releasing the lower holding mechanism and deploying the reflectors.

Due to the above schedule change, the completion of the critical phase will be delayed by one day to Dec. 27. The “KIKU No. 8” is in good condition.

Attachment: Deployment Images of Large Deployable Antennas http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2006/12/20061226_kiku8_e.html#at01