Tokyo-based ALE Co., Ltd (ALE), led by CEO Lena Okajima, with the mission to bring space closer to people, announces the launch result and the operational status of the company's second satellite, ALE-2, which will take on the challenge of realizing man-made shooting stars.
■ Results of the launch and operational status of ALE-2
On December 6th, 2019, ALE-2 was launched by Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket, which was procured by a contract with Spaceflight, a mission management and launch services provider, and was successfully placed into orbit.
ALE-2 also has successfully established contact with ground stations.
■Future operation schedule of ALE-2
ALE-2 will perform functional tests over several months to confirm all the components and the systems work properly. ALE is aiming for the demonstration of the world's first man-made shooting stars with ALE-2 in 2020. Details of the demonstration are currently under consideration and will be announced as soon as the plan is confirmed.
■ The features of ALE-2
ALE-2 is furnished with thrusters as an orbit controlling device which allows raising and lowering the position of the satellite by discharging gas from its nozzles. With the thrusters, the location, date and time which the man-made shooting stars are seen can be controlled as targeted.
The 2nd satellite embeds now 400 sources of man-made shooting stars in 5 colors. We developed blue meteor sources and complemented the palette of the 4 colors (white, green, pink and orange) already available in the 1st artificial satellite.
* DOMR:De-Orbit Mechanism is a registered trademark of Nakashimada Engineering Works, Ltd (located at Yame city in Fukuoka prefecture).
