Information Gathering Satellite
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On 28 March 2003, presumably partly in response to North Korea's launch of a Taepodong rocket over Japan in 1998, and partly to provide a source of satellite images other than through cooperation with the US, Japan launched a radar and an optical spy satellite, officially known as Information Gathering Satellites (情報収集衛星?) IGS-1A and IGS-1B.
These satellites follow one another at 37-minute separation in a 492km orbit, which passes over Pyongyang at 11:22am each day, according to observations collected on the seesat-L mailing list.
A second pair of satellites were lost in an H2-A launch accident in November 2003.
An optical surveillance satellite IGS-2A was launched on 11 September 2006; a radar satellite and an unexpected third optical satellite suspected to be of a more advanced type were launched on 24 February 2007.
[edit] References
- "Lifting The Darkness On Japan's Next Spy Satellite", SpaceDaily, Nov 27, 2006.
- "Japan launches new spy satellite", bbc.co.uk, 11 Sep 2006.
- "Japanese launch fails", SPACEFLIGHT NOW, Nov 29, 2003.
- "Japanese rocket puts spy spacecraft into orbit", SPACEFLIGHT NOW, 24 February 2007
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