The Solar-B satellite was launched on September 23, 2006 (06:36 am Japan time) by the Institute of Space and Astronautics, the Japan Space Exploration Agency (ISAS / JAXA), and renamed Hinode (Japanese Sunrise). Hinode holds three lines; the X-ray telescope (XRT), the EUV imaging spectrometer (EIS), and the solar optical telescope (SOT).

These tools were developed by ISAS / JAXA in collaboration with the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan as a local partner, NASA and the Council of Science and Technology Facilities (UK) as international partners. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the N-wegian Space Center have provided a low-link station.

All data taken with Hinode is open to all since May 2007. This volume combines the first set of useful papers in the Hinode task (mission overview, EIS, XRT, and database system) published in Volume 243, No.

1 (June 2007) Second Papers (four papers about SOT and one paper on XRT) published in Volume 249, Issue 2 (June 2008). Another SOT paper cited by Tarbell et al.

(2008) in these papers will appear later in solar physics.