The COMETS satellite

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) plans to launch the Communications and Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite (COMETS) by an H-II launch vehicle in summer of 1997, which was rescheduled from the original planing date of launching in February of 1997. The COMETS project has progressed through the critical design phase and the design follow-up phase. The system Critical Design Review (CDR) was held in April of 1995. Almost all the flight components have been already assembled, integrated and tested, and it is now in the stage of mission and bus system integration test phase. From the beginning of 1996, the satellite Proto-Flight Test (PFT) will be conducted in NASDA Tsukuba Space Center. This paper describes the characteristics of COMETS spacecraft, the development-test using the satellite system engineering models, and the key components of the flight hardware.