Haruka

Means "far away", also called Muses B and Halca (Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy)

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General

Designation	24720 / 97005A
Launch date	12 Feb 1997
Country of origin	Japan
Mission	Scientific: astronomy
Perigee/Apogee	565 / 21462 km
Inclination	31.3°
Period	374 min
Launch vehicle	Mu 5

Operated by Isas

Haruka is the space segment of the VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Programme), and will unfurl an 8-meter radiotelescope antenna to make joint observations with ground based radio observatories, simulating a telescope larger than the Earth. Haruka carries detectors operating at 1.6, 5 and 22 GHz, and will be able to make radio images with very high spatial resolution, permitting precise measurements of quasar jets and galactic maser sources.

Downlinks at 128 kbps (2.2636 GHz). Lifetime: 3 to 5 years

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External resources

http://www.vsop.isas.jaxa.jp/MUSES_B.html

http://www.vsop.isas.jaxa.jp/VSOP.html
sat-index articles

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