RIKEN, Mitsui Bussan and NanoAvionics team up for NinjaSat X-ray Observatory

RIKEN, Japan's largest comprehensive research institution, Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, and mission integrator Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) have announced their collaboration on the astronomical NinjaSat1 X-ray observatory mission. The aim of this two-year mission in a low Earth orbit (LEO) is to observe X-ray photons from bright X-ray objects in the universe. The NinjaSat team aims to observe black holes and neutron stars that suddenly brighten in X-rays, and, coordinating with on-ground optical observatories, to study how matter accretes to these compact objects.