Astrophysics

Hitomi

Failed

Image: NASA · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Launched: 17 Feb 201608:45:00 UTC
Last contact: 26 Mar 2016
End declared: 28 Apr 2016
Duration: 1 month 9 days
Destinations: Low Earth orbit

A JAXA X-ray observatory built with NASA. It broke apart five weeks after launch when a software error set it spinning out of control, but had already measured the motion of hot gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster.

Milestones

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Spacecraft

Hitomi

Telescope

Failed

Observatory carrying an X-ray microcalorimeter cooled to a twentieth of a degree above absolute zero.

Launch mass: 2,700 kg
Size: 4.5 m × 2.2 m, span 14 m
Power: Solar
Built by: NEC
Last contact: 26 Mar 2016
End declared: 28 Apr 2016
Designator: 2016-012A

Mission details from global.jaxa.jp.