Japan launches the smallest rocket ever to carry tiny satellite into orbit

Japan launches the smallest rocket ever to carry tiny satellite into orbit

   Kautilya Academy    11-02-2020

Japan launches the smallest rocket ever to carry tiny Satellite into orbit

Japan launches the smallest rocket ever to carry tiny satellite into orbit

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on February 3, 2018, launched the world’s smallest rocket with the ability to put a tiny satellite into orbit. The rocket lifted off from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, south-western Japan.

It carried a microsatellite TRICOM-1R, a three-unit CubeSat weighing about 3 kilograms. The satellite was developed by the University of Tokyo to capture images of the Earth’s surface. This satellite launch was a re-flight of the TRICOM-1 mission, which was lost in SS-520’s failure in 2017.

The launch was aimed at testing the ability of JAXA to launch low-cost rockets that can put microsatellites into space at affordable rates.

SS-520 Series Rocket

• The rocket, measuring 10 meters in length, 50 centimeters in diameter and some 2.6 tons in weight, was the smallest satellite-carrying rocket in the world.

• It is No 5 vehicle of the SS-520 series and improved version of JAXA’s SS—520.

• It is a two-stage vehicle, consisting of an S-520 booster and a smaller second stage.

• It was the SS-520’s fourth flight. It first flew on February 5, 1998, before carrying out an ionospheric research mission from Ny-Alesund, Svalbard in December 2000.

• SS-520 series is based upon the S-520, which has made thirty launches since it was introduced in 1980, the most recent in 2015.

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