Science
QPS-SAR-5 (TSUKUYOMI-I)
Japanese Commercial SAR Imaging Satellite · iQPS (Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Japan)
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QPS-SAR-5, nicknamed Tsukuyomi-I after the Japanese moon god, is part of a Fukuoka startup's plan to build the world's largest small-satellite radar constellation — 36 satellites eventually, each carrying a 3.6-meter deployable antenna weighing just 10 kg, sharp enough to distinguish individual cars on a road. iQPS names each orbital plane after a different deity from Japanese mythology, and Tsukuyomi-I's first images — taken through cloud cover over Hiroshima and earthquake-damaged Wajima — demonstrated exactly why radar matters: it doesn't care whether the sky is clear.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 300–324 mi (482–521 km)
- Inclination
- 42.0°
- One orbit
- 94.5 minutes15.2 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 58578
- Int’l designator
- 2023-196A
- Launched
- 2023
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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