Raiko is a Japanese satellite which was built and operated by Tohoku and Wakayama Universities. A two-unit CubeSat, Raiko was deployed from the International Space Station on October 4, 2012, having been launched in July.
Raiko was launched aboard the Kounotori 3 spacecraft, atop an H-IIB carrier rocket flying from Pad 2 of the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Centre. The launch occurred at 02:06 UTC on 21 July 2012. Four other CubeSats were launched with Raiko; We-Wish, Niwaka, TechEdSat and F-1. The five CubeSats were delivered to the International Space Station for deployment. They were deployed from Japanese Experiment Module Kibo via the J-SSOD system on October 4, 2012.
Named after a Japanese god of thunder, Raiko is a 2-kilogram spacecraft, which will be used for technology demonstration. It carries a camera with a fish-eye lens for Earth imaging, a prototype star tracker, a deployable membrane to slow the satellite, lowering its orbit, a photographic system to measure the satellite's movement relative to the International Space Station, and a Ku-band antenna for communications and Doppler ranging experiments.
Facts in Brief
Launch Date: 2012-07-21
Launch Vehicle: H-IIB
Launch Site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan