Japan to boost heaviest sat into orbit in December

(Asia In Focus via NewsEdge) The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will be launching its heaviest satellite ever on December 16.

Kiku No. 8, officially known as Engineering Test Satellite VIII, weighs approximately 5.8 tons and sports two large antennas that will span an area the size of a tennis court when deployed.

The satellite will be placed in geostationary orbit approximately 36,000km above Earth and will be used for experiments involving direct communications between the satellite and a handheld terminal.

The launch will cost 11.9 billion yen ($100 million), with the satellite built at a cost of around 43.6 billion yen ($370.7 million).

© 2006 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd

© 2006 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved

• Motive Big Network Analytics - Infographic
• MBB viewpoint: The market situation, key challenges and strategies
• FiberHome products are serving more than 20 million subscribers in Asia Pacific with its FTTH integrated solution.
• At a glance: Global SaaS market and Huawei's CSB Cloud Marketplace
• Taming the Big Data beast