JAXA notched a successful return to flight for its H3 rocket following its failure in December.
The rocket launched on its eighth mission—the first successful flight of the new three-engine variant—Friday morning from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center, delivering all six of its payloads to space.
“The launch vehicle flew as planned, and the second stage of the H3 launch vehicle was injected into the predetermined orbit,” JAXA said in a statement. “JAXA appreciates all for the support shown on behalf of the launch.”
Flashback: The successful separation of the payloads was good news—especially since an investigation found December’s failure to deliver the Michibiki 5 navigation satellite to orbit was due to an anomaly with the payload adapter. As a result of excessive shock during the fairing separation, the satellite separated from the rocket too early and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
All aboard: During last week’s launch, JAXA carried the following small sats into orbit:
- PETREL, an EO sat developed by the Tokyo Institute of Technology;
- STARS-X, a debris capture demo from Shizuoka University;
- BRO-22, an RF sat for maritime surveillance from Unseen Labs;
- VERTECS, a scientific sat to study star formation from the Kyushu Institute of Technology;
- HORN-L and HORN-R, a pair of sats demoing how atmospheric drag can support debris mitigation.
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