Read a changing service record

The photograph shows Michibiki-7 during its December 1, 2025 presentation at Mitsubishi Electric’s Kamakura Works. It documents physical hardware on the ground. JAXA later confirmed its launch on H3 Flight 9 at 04:23:31 JST on August 11, 2026, equivalent to 19:23:31 UTC on August 10. The two calendar dates describe one event in different time zones.

The Cabinet Office confirmed arrival at the intended orbital position on August 22 and said functional checks of the service equipment would follow. A photograph, a launch result and an orbit-arrival notice establish different things. None should be silently relabeled as evidence that every service was commissioned. The chronology here was reviewed on October 24, 2026; it is a dated learning record, not a live availability display.

Michibiki-6, or QZS-6, launched on February 2, 2025. Its July 18 notice confirms the start of positioning and MADOCA-PPP services, while identifying ionospheric correction transmission as experimental and other functions as scheduled. A separate notice confirms SBAS transmission beginning October 2, 2025. One spacecraft therefore has several service milestones with different evidence states.

In a teaching ledger, give each row a spacecraft, a function, a date and a status such as planned, experimental or operational. That makes it possible to connect QZSS with the earlier MTSAT augmentation service without saying every QZSS function is an aviation service. It also prevents a future tense in one announcement from becoming a completed event merely because time has passed.

The July 2026 six-satellite supplement accounts for the loss of QZS-5 and describes the intended configuration using QZS-2, QZS-3, QZS-4, QZS-1R, QZS-6 and QZS-7. It specifies differences from the seven-satellite performance standard and planned orbit adjustments. The associated notice places this configuration after QZS-7 begins operations. A documented future configuration is not itself a commissioning announcement.

The standards page also identifies which provisions apply only after the seven-satellite service starts. Read the scope, version, service area and assumptions before applying a number. A value for seeing one satellite is not a guarantee of a complete position solution, and an average performance measure is not a worst-case guarantee. Use dated service notices for milestones and operating notices for current conditions; keep plans, tested results and commitments distinct.