Hawaii

retired

CommunicationsLEOCOSPAR 2019-018FLaunched 4/1/2019

Admin Edit

Mission & Launch

Launch Mission: EMISAT
Launch Vehicle: PSLV-QL
Launch Date: 4/1/2019
Last Contact: 11/22/2023

Orbit & Mass

Orbit Class: LEO
Altitude: 501.5 km
Inclination: 97.48 deg
Dry Mass: 3.8 kg
Total Mass: 3.8 kg

Payload Classification

Mentions

All verified mentions of this spacecraft in source documents.

Initial GRITSS data collection passes will focus on broadcasting signals to NASA tracking stations in Maryland, Texas, and Hawaii.

PlanGeneralValue 2.5Jul 9, 2026NASA and ISISPACE Deploy GRITSS CubeSat to Advance Orbital Reference Frame Precision

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AWS-3 prices ranged from 15 cents per MHz-POP for American Samoa to $5.67 per MHz-POP for Honolulu, Hawaii.

Gemini North is located on Maunakea in Hawaii.

CapabilityGeneralValue 2.3May 22, 2026Gemini North osserva la Nebulosa Sfera di Cristallo

The 6594th Test Group operated transport aircraft from Hawaii from the late 1950s into the 1980s to recover returning spacecraft carrying reconnaissance film over the Pacific Ocean.

CapabilityGeneralValue 3.0May 18, 2026Deep Black on the West Coast: honoring the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Special Projects and the Star Catchers

AEON includes the NSF Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, the 4.1-meter SOAR telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile, Gemini South in Chile, Gemini North in Hawaii, and the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network.

GeneralValue 4.0May 3, 2026NSF NOIRLab testa ecosistema per avvisi di Rubin

IGRINS-2 was commissioned as a facility instrument for Gemini North in Hawaii.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0May 1, 2026Spettroscopia misura magnesio e silicio su WASP-189b

The 1961 Hardtack Orange high-altitude nuclear tests destroyed contemporary satellites and caused power grid outages in Hawaii.

GeneralValue 3.0Feb 11, 2026The Benign Era is Over: Why the Commercial Space Sector Just Woke Up on the Front Lines

LeoLabs is on track to operationalize its first containerized Scout radar at a site in Hawaii in early 2026.

PlanCapabilityValue 4.2Feb 2, 2026LeoLabs Closed 2025 With $60 Million in Total Contract Awards

Both the Hawaii Scout site and the Indo-Pacific Seeker site will contribute to LeoLabs’ Global Radar Network and augment U.S. Space Force space domain awareness capabilities.

CapabilityRelationshipsValue 3.5Feb 2, 2026LeoLabs Closed 2025 With $60 Million in Total Contract Awards

The study involves international collaboration, including the ESA's NEO Coordination Centre, the Universities of Alicante and Barcelona, and NSF NOIRLab in Hilo, Hawaii.

RelationshipsValue 2.5Jan 24, 2026Possibile sciame di meteore venusiane legato a due asteroidi Atira

The research team combined observations from the Seimei telescope in Okayama and the Subaru telescope in Hawaii to study SN 2022esa.

GeneralValue 1.8Jan 13, 2026Bright supernova offers new view of black hole birth

GPI is being upgraded and prepared for installation on the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

PlanCapabilityValue 3.5Dec 14, 2025Hidden circumbinary giant planet emerges from decade old Gemini data

The Atlas program, funded by NASA, utilizes four telescopes located in Hawaii, Chile, and South Africa to search the sky for potentially dangerous asteroid objects each night.

CapabilityFinancialGeneralValue 4.0Nov 13, 2025Il mistero della cometa C/2025 K1: la notte in cui si è rotta

Viasat has completed successful direct-to-device demonstrations in India, the Middle East, Brazil, and Hawaii.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Oct 22, 2025Viasat demos 1st satellite SMS messages on Android smartphone in Mexico

The first satellite recovery vehicle was ejected over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii for recovery after the camera was used.

CapabilityGeneralValue 3.4Oct 13, 2025This spacecraft will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2â¦

The Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea summit in Hawaii acquired images to test for quality similar to future captures by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

CapabilityPlanValue 3.5Oct 8, 2025Sharper than ever: New algorithm brings the stars into greater focus

C-119J aircraft were flown out of Hawaii to perform recoveries for the CORONA reconnaissance program until their retirement in September 1961.

PlanGeneralValue 3.5Oct 6, 2025Geminiâs wing and a prayer: Postscript

The H-6N requires a long-range standoff strike munition to target locations as far as Hawaii and the continental United States.

CapabilityValue 3.0Sep 4, 2025RT by @luritie: 🇨🇳 The combination of the specially-configured aerial-refuelling capable H-6N bomber and the likes of the JL-1 air-launched ballistic missile is understood to be the primary current manifestation of the PLA Air Force's (PLAAF) (re)adoption of a nuclear strike role, a development that offers China a so-called nuclear triad after decades of heavy—in practice near-total—reliance on ground-launched nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. While the PLAAF currently appears to be turning to air-launched ballistic missiles to deliver nuclear warheads, it may come to deploy nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missiles for its future bomber aircraft going forward. The subsonic turbofan-powered H-6N and the underlying turbofan-powered H-6K are the latest Chinese derivatives of the 1950s-origin turbojet-powered Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 bomber aircraft design. While the longevity of the Tu-16 design in Chinese service is often spoken of in the same light as the U.S. Air Force's ongoing use of the 1950s-origin B-52 bomber aircraft design, the Tu-16/H-6 is best characterized as a medium bomber design, while the B-52 is best characterized as a heavy bomber design. The latest B-52H—a highly modified version of airframes that were built through the early 1960s—is likely to have a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) that is over 200% that of the closely related turbofan-powered H-6K and H-6N, the production of which continued into the 2020s. The difference in MTOW between the H-6N and B-52H is broadly comparable to the difference in MTOW between a late model Boeing 737 airliner and a late model Boeing 767 airliner. All things considered, the H-6N design is severely limited in terms of payload-range and range-endurance and cannot be employed in the highly flexible manner that the USAF employed the versatile B-52 design throughout the Cold War and to the present day. Given the prevailing threat environment, China's military-geographical context, and the logistical realities associated with operating the likes of the H-6N and even the American B-52H from China to attack distant targets, the H-6N requires a very long-range standoff strike munition to target Hawaii and the continental United States. The JL-1 appears to be one of at least two air-launched munitions that the H-6N can carry on its single semi-recessed centerline (external) weapons station—the other is a boost-glide vehicle/hypersonic glide vehicle design. There is no public indication of the existence of a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile for the H-6N, and the aforementioned considerations indicate why this is likely to be the case. The PLAAF is, however, likely to acquire a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile for the reportedly forthcoming H-20 bomber aircraft, which is widely thought to be a flying wing low observable design in the vein of the American B-2 and B-21. Such a bomber aircraft design will be limited to carrying munitions in one or more internal bomb bays. The JL-1 is an extremely large—oversized munition—such an air-launched ballistic missile is an unlikely candidate for carriage by the reportedly forthcoming H-20 bomber. While the air-launched ballistic missiles have certain advantages over air-launched cruise missiles, ballistic missiles employ rockets for propulsion that are inherently inefficient and uneconomical by virtue of carrying the weight and volume of oxidizer necessary for combustion within the missile. A prospective Chinese nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile design is, in contrast, likely to use an air-breathing propulsion system such as a turbofan engine or a ramjet engine that makes use of atmospheric oxygen as oxidizer. All else being equal, a munition equipped with an air-breathing propulsion system of a given range-payload class is going to be much smaller and lighter—and more suitable for internal carriage—than a munition that is equipped with a non-air-breathing propulsion system, namely a liquid-propellant rocket engine or solid-propellant rocket motor. The PLAAF's future course will, of course, be shaped by the various other considerations at play, above all those concerning the logistical realities of having an H-20 bomber/a future PLAAF bomber design more generally take off from China to target Hawaii and/or the continental United States and the nature of envisaged American air and ballistic missile defence capabilities. It is, therefore, possible that H-20 bombers/a future PLAAF bomber aircraft design, more generally, will be equipped with a smaller and lighter nuclear-armed air-launched ballistic missile design. It is important to note that a subsonic air-launched cruise missile is not the only option available to China. The recent parade was used to unveil the new and previously unseen YJ-19, which is reported to be a sustained supersonic/hypersonic high-altitude anti-ship cruise missile that is equipped with a reported air-breathing scramjet (i.e., supersonic combustion airflow ramjet) engine. While the YJ-19 is reliant on a large and heavy (non-airbreathing) solid-propellant rocket booster as its booster, it amounts to another approach that China can pursue to equip its future bomber aircraft with nuclear-armed air-launched strike munitions that are very different than the likes of the very large and bulky JL-1 air-launched ballistic missile.

Film from HEXAGON and GAMBIT missions was recovered over the North Pacific Ocean, transported to Hawaii, then California, then Rochester, New York, for processing, and then delivered to Washington, DC for interpretation.

GeneralValue 3.0Sep 2, 2025Flashpoint Cyprus 1974: Cold War satellite reconnaissance and peripheral wars