MicroOrbiter

Micro Orbiter Inc. is a Japanese New Space startup founded on May 13, 2021, and headquartered in the Tetsu Tate Building in Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, with an additional operations desk at the Kyushu Institute of Technology campus in Kitakyushu. The company was established with capital of 100 million yen by founder and CEO Yoji Hirakata, a former Kyushu University-trained electrical engineer and Nissho Iwai Corporation executive with international postings in Moscow, New York, and Los Angeles.

The company develops mission-customized CubeSat platforms designed to serve four core functions: communication, observation, science, and education. Its flagship product, MicroOrbiter-1, is an experimental IoT nanosatellite developed jointly with the Kyushu Institute of Technology. It uses LoRa modulation in the 920MHz unlicensed band with a Store and Forward relay method to collect low-power IoT sensor data from distributed ground terminals in remote and maritime locations and downlink it via ground stations, with a secondary link in the 400MHz band. The satellite was launched to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 resupply mission on March 22, 2024, before being deployed into low Earth orbit in April 2024.

Micro Orbiter's strategic focus spans two directions: deploying Japanese-built IoT satellite technology into global markets, and building international space capacity-building programs for Japanese industry applications, largely in partnership with the Kyushu Institute of Technology.