Technology demonstration satellites

first artificial Earth satellite

Soviet research satellite

WINDS (Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite, also known as Kizuna) was a Japanese communication satellite. Launch was originally scheduled for 2007.

Ecuadorian satellite

Earth observation satellite

The Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS), also called Kirari, was an experimental satellite launched by JAXA to demonstrate interorbital communication between satellites through optical (laser) means. OICETS was originally slated for a launch on the second J-I launcher. Due to problems with that launcher, the launch had to be put on hold. Using the H-IIA was out of question: it would have been overkill to use the H-IIA to send a satellite into low Earth orbit, and there was no budget for another H-IIA launch. Finally, in order to be able to perform the tests d

Russian technology demonstration satellite

The ClearSpace-1 (ClearSpace One) mission is an ESA Space debris removal mission led by ClearSpace SA, a Swiss startup company. The mission's objective is to remove the PROBA-1 satellite from orbit. The mission aims to demonstrate technologies for rendezvous, capture, and deorbit for end-of-life satellites and to build a path to space junk remediation. Destructive reentry will destroy both the captured satellite and itself. It is expected to launch in 2028. thumb|300x300px|Proposed ESA Space Safety Fleet, 2025

former JAXA satellite which demonstrated operations in very low Earth orbit

BLITS (Ball Lens In The Space) is a Russian satellite launched on September 17, 2009, as a secondary payload on a Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite is totally passive and spherical, and is tracked using satellite laser ranging (SLR) by the International Laser Ranging Service. The design of BLITS is based on the optical Luneburg lens concept. The retroreflector is a multilayer glass sphere; it provides uniform reflection characteristics when viewed within a very wide range of angles, and can provide a cross-section sufficient for observations at low to

Japanese satellite

Niwaka or FITSAT-1 is a 1U CubeSat satellite deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on 4 October 2012. The Niwaka satellite includes high power LEDs which are driven by 200 watts pulses, allowing Morse code style communication from the sky to the ground. FITSAT-1 (Niwaka) communicates with ground by means of 5.8 GHz high-speed (115200 bit/s) transmitter. It also has a 437 MHz (amateur band) beacon and transmitter with data rate 1200 bit/s for telemetry downlink.

Japanese satellite

Soviet satellites