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Resources for the Press on JAXA's Deep-Space Missions

In recent years, Japan has mounted an exciting slate of missions, including the solar sail demonstration mission IKAROS, the asteroid sample return mission Hayabusa, and the Venus climate orbiter Akatsuki. We are proud to be a member of the IKAROS team, cooperating technically and as an education and outreach partner. Planetary Society Executive Director Louis Friedman has traveled to Japan to be present for the deployment of IKAROS' sails.

In covering these achievements, The Planetary Society has accumulated a variety of images and sources within the Japanese space community, which we have gathered together here as a convenient resource. Press are also invited to contact Susan Lendroth at The Planetary Society (1-626-793-5100 or susan.lendroth@planetary.org) to reach Planetary Society experts on these missions. Mission events will be covered in detail on The Planetary Society Blog.

While JAXA does translate some of their online content into English, most is not simultaneously translated. Thus, links provided here are to English language content mostly only for evergreen information; for breaking news, most links are to JAXA's Japanese language websites along with Google automated translations of the same websites.

Quick Links

General information for press from JAXA
Information on Hayabusa, a.k.a. MUSES-C, Japan's sample return mission to and from asteroid Itokawa
Information on Akatsuki, a.k.a. PLANET-C or Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO), Japan's Venus orbiter
Information on IKAROS, Japan's solar sail engineering test mission, launched as a secondary payload with Akatsuki

Converting Times

Japan Standard Time (JST) is UTC+9.
To convert from JST to other time zones:
Australian EST: Add 1 hour
Central European Summer Time: subtract 7
British Summer Time: subtract 8
United States EDT: subtract 13
United States PDT: subtract 16

General information for press from JAXA

JAXA Press Office contacts: proffice@jaxa.jp or +81-3-6266-6400
JAXA press release archive: Japanese - Google translation to English - English Caution: there can be a lag of many days in translation of Japanese releases to English. Use the Japanese site to find breaking news updates.
JAXA's Planetary Exploration Program Group (JSPEC): has mission backgrounders and other feature stories as well as news in Japanese - Google translation to English - English Caution: English translation lags Japanese content by several days.

Information on Hayabusa, a.k.a. MUSES-C

Official Hayabusa Earth return press kit (English)
Official Hayabusa Blog is mostly in Japanese, but critical mission updates are simultaneously posted in English. Here is the Google translation.
Official Hayabusa Twitter is mostly in Japanese, but critical mission updates are simultaenously posted in English. Here is the Google translation.
Official Hayabusa website for the Earth Return phase of the mission (Japanese) - Google translation to English
The Planetary Society Blog is covering every step of the Hayabusa mission. Links to Hayabusa blog entries are collected here.
Although an unofficial information source, the participants on unmannedspaceflight.com's Hayabusa thread are often the first to flag the location of new official information about the mission's progress.

Images of Hayabusa

Official JAXA images archive (English). Images are posted at a maximum of 1024 pixels across. For higher-resolution views, JAXA requires press to make a direct request, either by email (proffice@jaxa.jp) or by phone (+81-3-6266-6400).

Corby Waste, an artist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has produced (with advice from engineer Tommy Thompson) some lovely artist's concepts, most of which are available in high resolution and in 3D. Here are a few of those:

	Click to enlarge > Hayabusa touchdown! Hayabusa touches its sample collection horn to the surface of asteroid Itokawa. A small blue target marker on the surface in the foreground was released by Hayabusa to guide it safely to the surface. The entire sample collection process only took one second. Hayabusa is attempting to bring the asteroid sample back to Earth. The Earth return capsule can be seen as a gold sphere on the front of the spacecraft's main body. A 3D anaglyph is also available. Credit: Corby Waste for NASA / JPL / JAXA
	Click to enlarge > Hayabusa's approach Hayabusa approaches asteroid Itokawa, casting a shadow on its surface. A 3D anaglyph is also available. Credit: Corby Waste for NASA / JPL / JAXA
	Click to enlarge > Hayabusa approaches Earth Hayabusa approaches Earth; in this artist's view, it has just released its sample capsule. The spacecraft bus will follow the capsule, breaking into pieces and burning up. A 3D version is also available. Credit: Corby Waste and Tommy Thompson for NASA / JPL
	Click to enlarge > Hayabusa's capsule descends Hayabusa's sample return capsule descends under parachute toward the Woomera desert, Australia. A 3D version is available here. Credit: Corby Waste and Tommy Thompson for NASA / JPL

Information on Akatsuki, a.k.a. PLANET-C or Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO)

Official Akatsuki Launch press kit (English)
Official Akatsuki mission overview (English)
Official Akatsuki Website (Japanese) - Google translation to English
Official Akatsuki Twitter - Google translation to English
Although an unofficial information source, the participants on unmannedspaceflight.com's Akatsuki thread are often the first to flag the location of new official information about the Akatsuki mission's progress.

Images of Akatsuki

Information on IKAROS

Official IKAROS Launch press kit (English)
Official IKAROS Mission overview (English)
Official IKAROS Blog (Japanese) - Google translation to English
Official IKAROS Twitter (Japanese) - Google translation to English. Note: this Twitter feed is written as though it were written by a child, so is in less formal, more colloquial Japanese than the other missions' feeds. As a result, the Google translations of this feed are much more difficult to interpret than those of Hayabusa and Akatsuki.
The Planetary Society Blog is covering every step of the IKAROS mission. Links to IKAROS blog entries are collected here.
Although an unofficial information source, the participants on unmannedspaceflight.com's IKAROS thread are often the first to flag the location of new official information about the IKAROS mission's progress.

Images of IKAROS