The 20 million dollar (11.3 million US) microsatellite FedSat was one of four satellites aboard a rocket launched from Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) centre on the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima on Saturday.

FedSat, which carries communications, space science, navigation and computing systems, is due to conduct experiments in communications, global positioning systems, remote sensing and engineering research during three years in orbit around the earth.

Professor Bill Cowley, satellite communications leader for the Commonwealth Research Centre for satellite systems, said from Adelaide researchers had made first contact late on Saturday.

The team, which was able to turn on its transmitter and download information from the satellite, had checked its temperature, voltages and position, which were all holding to plan, he said.

But more work needed to be done over the coming weeks before the launch could be declared a complete success.

"The satellite is still tumbling in space; we haven't got control of its orientation," Cowley said.

"We are working on what is called attitude control, which keeps it pointing in the right direction.

"Last night we turned on the attitude control computer; today we're doing some more tests and we should have it under control in the next day or so."

While the satellite was tumbling, researchers could only make contact in brief bursts during the times it was in the correct orientation.

Japan offered last year to put the Australian microsatellite into space as a gift for the Australian commonwealth's centenary.

It was the first time the Japanese-developed H-2A rocket had been launched with an international payload and the first Australian-built satellite to be launched since the late 1960s.

Researchers at Queensland's University of Technology (QUT), Adelaide's University of South Australia, the University of Newcastle in New South Wales and Victoria's LaTrobe University all contributed to the project.

SPACE.WIRE