HALCA
Sign in to saveAlso known as Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy, VSOP, VLBI Space Observatory Programme, MUSES-B, Haruka
HALCA (Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy), also known for its project name VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Programme), the code name MUSES-B (for the second of the Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft series), or just Haruka () was a Japanese 8 meter diameter radio telescope satellite which was used for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). It was the first such space-borne dedicated VLBI mission.
Key facts
- Spaceflight.name
- HALCA
- Spaceflight.names_list
- MUSES-BVSOPHaruka (はるか)
- Spaceflight.image
- Haruka HALCA VSOP MUSES-B.jpg
- Spaceflight.image_caption
- HALCA after the final assembly during a solar battery check at Uchinoura
- Spaceflight.mission_type
- Astronomy
- Spaceflight.operator
- ISAS
- Spaceflight.COSPAR_ID
- 1997-005A
- Spaceflight.SATCAT
- 24720
- Spaceflight.mission_duration
- 8 years, 9 months, 18 days
- Spaceflight.manufacturer
- NEC Toshiba Space Systems
- Spaceflight.launch_rocket
- M-5-1
- Spaceflight.launch_site
- Kagoshima M-V Pad
- Spaceflight.disposal_type
- Decommissioned
- Spaceflight.orbit_reference
- Geocentric
- Spaceflight.orbit_regime
- Highly elliptical
- Spaceflight.orbit_eccentricity
- 0.5999671
- Spaceflight.orbit_inclination
- 31.1880 degrees
- Spaceflight.orbit_period
- 376.1 minutes
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Haruka HALCA VSOP MUSES-B deployment test.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1997-02-12
- Commons category
- HALCA
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Article
6 sectionsContents
- History
- Antenna
- Highlights
- Gallery
- References
- External links
HALCA (Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy), also known for its project name VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Programme), the code name MUSES-B (for the second of the Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft series), or just Haruka () was a Japanese 8 meter diameter radio telescope satellite which was used for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). It was the first such space-borne dedicated VLBI mission.
==History== It was placed in a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee altitude of 21,400 km and a perigee altitude of 560 km, with an orbital period of approximately 6.3 hours. This orbit allowed imaging of celestial radio sources by the satellite in conjunction with an array of ground-based radio telescopes, such that both good (u,v) plane coverage and very high resolution were obtained.