Following a day’s delay, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced Dec. 26 that a key receiving antenna on its Kiku-8 engineering test satellite had been deployed, pushing completion of the mission’s critical phase to Dec. 27.

Technical difficulties with a release mechanism on one of two large deployable antenna reflectors Dec. 25 forced suspension of operations for more than 24 hours, according to JAXA. But the agency reported Dec. 26 that telemetry data and images from onboard cameras confirmed that deployment of the sending antenna was successful, and that the satellite was in stable condition. JAXA expected the satellite to shift into regular attitude control mode and move from the critical phase to the initial functional verification phase by about 10 a.m. Japan time.

Kiku-8, Japan’s largest satellite to date, was launched on a domestic H2-A rocket Dec. 18.