Japan launched a small Epsilon-5 rocket with nine satellites on November 8
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2021) Japan launched a small Epsilon-5 rocket with nine satellites on November 8.
The launch, broadcast live by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was carried out from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima. The nine satellites were created by private companies and enterprises.
The experimental satellite RAISE-2 was the first to separate, at an altitude of 570 kilometers (354 miles). It carried six details and instruments from Japanese companies in order to check the impact of space conditions on them. Then the separation of TeikyoSat-4, Asterisc, Z-Sat, DRUMS, HIBARI, KOSEN-1, ARICA and NanoDragon satellites took place. HIBARI, Asterisc, ARICA and TeikyoSat-4 were created by Japanese universities students. NanoDragon was jointly developed by the Japanese Meisei Electric Company and the Vietnam National Space Center, and it will test the satellites` onboard computer.
The launch was earlier postponed three times for technical reasons and because of the weather conditions.
The Epsilon-5 solid-fuel rocket is 8 feet in diameter, 85 feet in length and weights 96 tonnes. Total development and launch costs were 5.8 billion Yen ($51 million). In comparison, launching a liquid-fueled H2A rocket costs more than twice as much, about 13 billion yen.
Epsilon-5 is equipped with artificial intelligence devices, which provides automatic verification and control of its readiness for launch and almost does not require human participation, as launch control is carried out from two computers. The launch preparation takes only one week.
The first launch of Epsilon took place in 2013, the next one at the end of 2016, the third rocket launch was successfully completed in January 2018, the fourth was carried out in January 2019. Japan plans to use the small rocket for commercial purposes, in particular, to launch satellites of developing countries that do not have large funds for this.
