(Kyodo News via NewsEdge) Japan's biggest satellite, Kiku No. 8, that was launched last month, has been successfully put into a geostationary orbit, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
A series of experiments including communications with a mobile terminal on the ground are scheduled to start around late April on the 5.8-ton satellite, the heaviest Japan has built, after confirming the devices on it are functioning.
The satellite is in orbit about 36,000 kilometers above the Equator at 146 degrees longitude, according to the agency.
The government's space agency launched the satellite from the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island off southern Kyushu on December 18 with the 11th vehicle of Japan's domestically developed H-2A rocket.
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