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

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

's first X-ray astronomy

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

, developed by the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (then a division of the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

). It was launched from the

Kagoshima Space Center The is a space launch facility in the Japanese town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture. Before the establishment of the JAXA space agency in 2003, it was simply called the (KSC). All of Japan's scientific satellites were launched from Uchino ...

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 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