Japan's JAXA launches 9 satellites to test space technologies, anti-space debris devices

While the world is busy celebrating the successful return of NASA and SpaceX's Crew-2 mission astronauts, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), quietly inserted nine satellites into orbit on Tuesday, November 9. Hitching a ride aboard the solid-fuel Epsilon 5 rocket, the satellites were lifted off from the Uchinoura Space Center in Japan's Kagoshima Prefecture at around 6:25 am (IST). In an official statement released following the launch, the space agency said that "the rocket flew as planned" and released all the payloads one by one at an altitude of 600 kilometers. 

The mission finally met its completion after a delay as it was first scheduled to launch on October 1, but the date was pushed ahead just a minute before the liftoff owing to a malfunction in the ground radar equipment and again on October 7 due to bad weather. "We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all concerned parties for their cooperation in the launch of Epsilon Rocket No. 5", JAXA said in its statement. 

Epsilon 5 rocket marks its fifth successful launch

The recent assignment of the Epsilon 5 rocket marked its fifth liftoff as all of its last four launches conducted in September 2013, December 2016, January 2018 and January 2019, were 100% successful, reported Space News citing JAXA's data. This time, the rocket carried four microsatellites and four cube satellites (CubeSats) along with the primary payload, Rapid Innovative Payload Demonstration Satellite No. 2 or RAISE-2. Among the four microsatellites were- HIBARI, Z-Sat, DRUMS and TeikyoSat-4 whereas the four CubeSats included- ASTERISC, ARICA, NanoDragon, KOSEN-1.

As per JAXA, the rocket first released the primary payload RAISE-2 approximately 52 minutes and 35 seconds after launch and the rest of the satellites after over one hour. It had previously revealed that the main payload of the launch aims to test six space technologies, which also include the MARIN sensor, developed to determine the position, altitude and velocity of orbiting satellites. Among these technologies is the 62-kilogram Debris Removal Unprecedented Micro Satellite (DRUMS), that will aim to test the techniques for removing space debris. A report by Space News suggested that the CubeSat 'NanoDragon' was developed by the Vietnam National Space Center while the other eight satellites, now revolving in Earth's orbit, were manufactured in Japan by companies and universities. 

Image: Twitter/@spaceedu_info