AKARI (formerly ASTRO-F) was successfully launched on February 22 (JST) in 2006 from Uchinoura Space Center (USC) by the M-V-8. AKARI is the first Japanese infrared astronomy satellite for the purpose of highly sensitive observations over a wide wavelength range from the near to far-infrared in which ground-based observations are impossible due to the heavy atmospheric absorption. AKARI will survey the entire sky and make a new infrared map of the Universe. In addition, AKARI will make precise observations of selected astronomical objects. All data taken by AKARI will be opened to the public, and used by astronomical researchers for solving the mysteries of the history of our Universe. As the result of the initial checkout phase, AKARI revealed its performance as good as or even better than that expected before launch. The mission is lead by ISAS/JAXA in collaboration with ESA, as well as many universities and institutes from Japan, Korea, and Europe.
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