ALE-2 was a satellite built and operated by ALE Co., LTD for space entertainment and atmospheric science. As the company's first satellite with on board propulsion, ALE-2 was to release artificial meteors into Earth's atmosphere, but plans were cancelled due to a malfunction of the deployment system. ALE-2's artificial meteors were to be used to study re-entry dynamics and upper atmosphere phenomena.[2]
ALE-2 is ALE Co., LTD's second satellite, following the ALE-1 launched in January 2019. As ALE-1 did not have on-board propulsion, the company intended ALE-2 to be the first satellite to release artificial meteors.[2] ALE-2 was developed by ALE Co., LTD, along with Tohoku University and Nihon University.[3][4] ALE-2 was to controllably release particles to the opposite direction of the satellite's direction of travel, which would allow them to re-enter Earth's atmosphere as artificial meteors.[5]
On 6 December 2019, an Electron rocket sent ALE-2 to low Earth orbit as part of the ″Running Out Of Fingers″ launch.[1] ALE-2 was placed in orbit with an altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi), lower than the International Space Station to eliminate any chance the particles released by ALE-2 would pose a risk to the astronauts at the station.[5] The satellite was equipped with thrusters to counter atmospheric drag and keep its altitude between 375 to 400 kilometres (233 to 249 mi), the optimal height to release the artificial meteor particles.[2]
On 4 April 2023, ALE ended the operations of ALE-2 as the orbital altitude of the satellite decreased following the depletion of onboard fuel.[6] ALE-2 decayed from orbit on 19 April 2023.[7][8]
For propulsion, the satellite was equipped with an ALEx supercritical thruster manufactured by Patchedconics, LLC. The ALEx engine was made from COTS components,[11] and uses non-toxic green propellant as fuel.[12][9] ALEx had a total of four thruster nozzles.[2]
In February 2020, ALE announed that a mulfunction of the shooting star deployment mechanism prevented ALE-2 from releasing artificial meteor particles.[13] Nevertheless, a simulation of the deployment was conducted in orbit.[14] The satellite's thrusters experienced power failures while in eclipses, as the DC/DC converter for the thrusters did not function properly when the battery voltage was too low.[9]
^ abShibuya, Yoshihiko; Kuwahara, Toshinori; Sato, Yuji; Fujita, Shinya; Watanabe, Hayato; Mitsuhashi, Yui (25 October 2021). "Orbit Design and Analysis of Artificial Meteors Generating Micro-satellites". Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress. 28th IAA Symposium on Small Satellite Missions 2021 at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress. Dubai: Tohoku University. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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