Named for a city of 571 000 located some 50 km west of Tokyo on the vast riverside of the river Sagamigawa. In 1892 the Sagamino Base Line for the nationwide triangulation was set up there. In recent years the city has grown into a large industrial center. In 1989 the campus of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, which develops Japanese scientific satellites, moved to Sagamihara, where the satellites Yoko and Haruka were built. (M 34343) _ _.