TSUBAME (satellite)

For the experimental VLEO satellite known as Tsubame, see Super Low Altitude Test Satellite.
CG rendering of the TSUBAME satellite

TSUBAME was a microsatellite developed by the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo University of Science from a student design concept in 2004.[1] The satellite was designed to demonstrate new technologies for rapid attitude control, observing gamma ray bursts, and Earth observation.[2] The name, TSUBAME, means swift in Japanese and was chosen both because of the experimental attitude control system and to invoke another gamma ray observatory, the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission,[3] which launched shortly after TSUBAME's first design concept was published in 2004.[4]

TSUBAME was launched with four other satellites from Yasny Cosmodrome on a Dnepr rocket on November 6, 2014.[5] It was placed in a 500 km altitude Sun-synchronous orbit. A week after the launch, problems were reported with communication hardware and communication was lost with the satellite after three months of recovery efforts.[1]

  1. ^ a b Yatsu, Yoichi; Kawai, Nobuyuki; Matsushita, Masanori; Kawajiri, Shota; Tawara, Kyosuke; Ohta, Kei; Koga, Masaya; Kimura, Shin'ichi. "What We Learned from the Tokyo Tech 50-kg Satellite "Tsubame"". Digital Commons-USU. Utah State University. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  2. ^ Krebs, Gunter. "Tsubame". space.skyrocket.de. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Tsubame – Spacecraft & Satellites". Spaceflight 101. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  4. ^ "ガンマ線バースト硬Ｘ線偏光観測衛星 TSUBAME". www.hp.phys.titech.ac.jp (in Japanese). Tokyo Institute of Technology. November 6, 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  5. ^ "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 19 August 2019.