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Suzaku

Launch Successful

Launch Details

Date: 10 July 2005, 03:30 am UTC

Rocket: M-V (Mu)

Provider: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Mission

Type: Astrophysics

Orbit: Low Earth Orbit

Pad: Mu Center, Uchinoura Space Center, Japan

Mission Description

Suzaku (formerly ASTRO-EII) was an X-ray astronomy satellite developed jointly by the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science at JAXA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to probe high energy X-ray sources, such as supernova explosions, black holes and galactic clusters. It was launched on 10 July 2005 aboard the M-V rocket on the M-V-6 mission. After its successful launch, the satellite was renamed Suzaku after the mythical Vermilion bird of the South