Tenma - Japan's X-ray satellite

Japan's second X-ray satellite, designated 'Tenma', has temporal and spectral sensitivity superior to that of its predecessor, Hakucho. It is a spin-stabilized satellite whose attitude maneuvers are performed through the activation of a magnetic torquing coil, by means of which a typical, 20-deg transfer occupies several orbits. Tenma carries as its instrument set scintillation proportional counters for spectral and temporal studies, an X-ray focusing collector for the study of very soft X-ray sources, a transient source monitor for wide-field sky monitoring, and a radiation belt monitor/gamma-ray burst detector for monitoring the non-X-ray background.