Tag: H3
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IDEFIX Phobos rover sent to Japan ahead of mission to Mars
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is JAXA’s lead mission that plans to survey and explore Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos. While the Japanese agency will build the main payload, the German Space Agency (DLR) and the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) will contribute to the mission. “IDEFIX,” a small secondary payload, will…
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Launch Roundup: Falcon 9’s 300th Flight and SpaceX to launch lunar lander
On the week of the sixth anniversary of the first flight of Falcon Heavy, SpaceX launched four separate Falcon 9 missions. Meanwhile, Roscosmos resupplied the International Space Station (ISS) with Progress MS-26 launching on Soyuz. Early Thursday morning, Falcon 9 launched from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) taking NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud,…
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Japanese space science missions facing delays after H3 rocket failure
The spacecraft for the Japanese-led X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, undergoes acoustic testing in Japan in December 2022. Credit: JAXA The launch of a Japanese X-ray telescope and robotic lunar lander has been delayed to no earlier than August, and the launch schedule for another Japanese mission to return samples from a moon…
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Japan’s maiden launch of H3 rocket fails during second stage flight
JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launched – at the second attempt – to maiden launch of the H3 launch vehicle at 01:37 UTC Tuesday. However, the vehicle failed shortly after staging, via an apparent failure to light the second stage that was set to deploy the ALOS-3 optical satellite into a 669-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).…
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Japan begins busy year with classified IGS-Radar 7 launch
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Industries have conducted the nation’s first orbital flight of 2023. The mission saw an H-IIA rocket carry the classified IGS-7 radar reconnaissance satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Liftoff occurred on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, at 01:49:20 UTC from Launch Area Y1 at the Tanegashima Space Center in…
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Japan’s H3 rocket awaiting final engine certification for first flight
Japan’s third-generation liquid hydrogen-powered rocket, H3, is nearing closer to its first launch. The H3 rocket is co-developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), succeeding the H-II family, which provided satellite launches and International Space Station cargo resupply missions for two decades. The H3 rocket is the third in…
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Phobos sample return mission enters development for 2024 launch
Artist’s concept of the Japanese MMX spacecraft near Mars and Phobos. Credit: JAXA Japan’s space agency has approved a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday. The Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, spacecraft will…