We have carried out the second optical navigation trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM02)
On June 11, 2018 at around09:30 - 10:40 JST, the thrusters were fired several times to give an acceleration of 13 cm/s (x-direction), 1 cm/s (-y-direction), 26 cm/s (z-direction). The distance from the spacecraft to the asteroid during the manoeuvre was about 1320km and their relative speed after TCM02 was about 2.1m/s. Until now, Hayabusa2 was approaching Ryugu from the side. But with TCM02, the asteroid is now directly in front of the spacecraft, along the direction of travel.
Downlink Test Using Ka-band
Today (June 29, 2016), we made a downlink test using Ka-band,and the result was successful. The antenna of DSS26 in Goldstone, DSN (Deep Space Network) of NASA was used and the calibration for the ground station was done today.
We made the first test of Ka-band in the beginning of January 2015, and the test of today was the second time. The distance between the Earth and the spacecraft is about 50 million km, which is about four times larger than the distance at the first test. We are using the X-band (8 GHz) for the daily operation, and we will use the Ka-band (32 GHx) when the spacecraft arrives at Asteroid Ryugu and send the data of Ryugu to us.