Solar-B and its vehicle M-V-7 rocket have been successfully launched from Uchinoura Space Center (USC/JAXA) at 06:36 am on 23 September 2006 (Japan Time). The spacecraft was put in the planned orbit and in nominal condition. Solar panel was deployed and Sun pointing was established after the launch. The spacecraft has been named Hinode, which means sunrise in Japanese.

Link

More info:

• Hinode(Solar-B) web page
• ISAS/ISAS web page
• NASA web page