Feb 24, 2008

Japan Blasts Satellite

Japan's space agency has launched an experimental communications satellite designed to enable super high-speed data transmission in remote areas.

An H-2A rocket carrying the satellite Kizuna was launched from the southern island of Tanegashima, about 1,000km (620 miles) south of Tokyo.

A ship entering restricted waters near the launch site slightly delayed the lift-off.

The launch had been postponed by a week because of a mechanical fault.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said the satellite had separated from the rocket and successfully entered its intended orbit, 283km from Earth.

The agency said that with Kizuna, it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabits per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different locations in South-East Asia.

Kizuna is also known as the Wideband Inter-Networking Engineering Test and Demonstration Satellite, or Winds.

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