Sakigake (MS-T5)
Sakigake (MS-T5) — Japan's first interplanetary probe, launched by ISAS on 7 January 1985 (UTC) as a test craft for its twin Suisei: the first deep-space probe launched by any country other than the Soviet Union and the United States. It passed 6.99 million km from Halley's Comet on 11 March 1986, on the comet's sunward side, and in January 1992 made the first Earth swing-by by a Japanese spacecraft. Flybys of two more comets were cancelled for lack of propellant, and its beacon was last received on 7 January 1999. (Its position here is representative.)
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- ISAS (Japan)
- Launched
- January 7, 1985
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.996 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 4,181,483 km
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.282 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Sakigake, "Pioneer", known before launch as MS-T5, was Japan's first interplanetary probe: a 138 kg test craft for its twin Suisei, launched by ISAS on an M-3SII rocket from Uchinoura on 7 January 1985 at 19:26 UTC (8 January in Japan). It was the first deep-space probe launched by any country other than the Soviet Union and the United States. With the Soviet Vegas, Europe's Giotto and Suisei, it was one of the fleet sent to Halley's Comet. It passed 6.99 million km from the comet on 11 March 1986, on its sunward side. It then flew by Earth on 8 January 1992, the first planetary swing-by by a Japanese spacecraft, at 88,997 km by NSSDCA's figure (88,790 km in NASA's history Beyond Earth). Planned flybys of comets Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková in 1996 and Giacobini–Zinner in 1998 were cancelled for lack of propellant. Its telemetry was lost on 15 November 1995, and its beacon was last received on 7 January 1999.
- 1985Sakigake launches toward Halley's Comet on an M-3SII rocketLaunch
Japan's first interplanetary probe.
On the comet's sunward side.
NSSDCA's figure and that in NASA's history Beyond Earth.
- 1999Its beacon is last receivedMission end
Images
No openly licensed image of Sakigake has been found.