Trajectory & orbital insertion
Ascent path is a representation — true ascent telemetry isn’t public.
Provider
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Provider type
Commercial
Orbit
SSO
Mission type
Earth Science
Launch site
Japan
Date
Sat, 23 Dec 2017 01:26:22 GMT
Orbital launch #
#5702 ever
Mission
GCOM-C1 is another satellite in JAXA's Earth observation Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) constellation. This spacecraft is the first satellite in GCOM-C series and is intended to operate in sun-synchronous orbit for 5 years. It aims to collect surface and atmospheric measurements in order to monitor global climate change. Along with it is launched an engineering test satellite SLATS (Super Low Altitude Test Satellite), which is an attempt to develop techniques to operate a satellite in extremely low orbits. SLATS will try achieve that by maintaining position in orbit via ion engines. It will also collect data on atmosphere density and measure atomic oxygen in such low altitudes.