HALCA (MUSES-B) Space-VLBI Spacecraft
HALCA was the Japanese space-VLBI observatory developed as MUSES-B. Its deployable mesh antenna had a maximum diameter of 10 m and an effective diameter of 8 m. From a highly elliptical Earth orbit, it combined radio observations with ground telescopes to synthesize baselines longer than Earth’s diameter. Observations concentrated on 1.6 and 5 GHz after the 22 GHz receiver suffered very low sensitivity. The spacecraft also demonstrated large-antenna deployment, stable data transmission and precise attitude control.
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Identity
- Aliases
- HALCAMUSES-BVSOP Space Observatory
- Family Name
- HALCA
- Full Name
- HALCA (MUSES-B) Space-VLBI Spacecraft
- Roles
- observatoryresearchtechnology_demonstrator
- Status
- retired
- Type
- spacecraft
Details
- Description
- HALCA was the Japanese space-VLBI observatory developed as MUSES-B. Its deployable mesh antenna had a maximum diameter of 10 m and an effective diameter of 8 m. From a highly elliptical Earth orbit, it combined radio observations with ground telescopes to synthesize baselines longer than Earth’s diameter. Observations concentrated on 1.6 and 5 GHz after the 22 GHz receiver suffered very low sensitivity. The spacecraft also demonstrated large-antenna deployment, stable data transmission and precise attitude control.
- First Flight Year
- 1,997
- Last Flight Year
- 2,005
- Operator
- Spacecraft Specs
- Launch Mass
- …
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Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:52:19 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:52:19 UTC