Moscow. October 7th. INTERFAX.RU – The launch of the Japanese light launch vehicle Epsilon-5 with a group of nine small spacecraft, scheduled for Thursday, has been canceled, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported.
According to the agency, the decision to cancel the launch was made due to strong winds.
The launch was planned to be carried out at 09:51 Tokyo time (03:51 Moscow time) from the Utinoura cosmodrome on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The rocket was supposed to launch the Japanese experimental RAISE-2 satellite with a mass of 110 kg into orbit, as well as the TeikyoSat-4, Hibari, Z-Sat, DRUMS, ASTERISC, ARICA, NANODRAGON and KOSEN-1 spacecraft, whose mass ranges from 4 to 62 kg …
The RAISE 2 satellite, created by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., is designed to test several different space technologies, including measuring the position, altitude and speed of orbiters. Microsatellite DRUMS, designed to test space debris collection technology in orbit. The device, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, will have to release a small object during the flight, and then capture it, demonstrating the ability to catch orbital debris.
Among the nine satellites, eight of which have been developed by Japanese companies and universities, is also the Vietnamese NanoDragon device, developed at the National Space Center of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. Its weight is only 3.8 kg. It is designed to receive and transmit signals from the International Automatic Identification System (AIS) to track the movement of ships.
The initial launch of Epsilon-5 with nine satellites was scheduled for October 1. However, due to technical problems in the radar equipment in the flight control center, which must track the telemetry of the flight path, the launch was canceled 19 seconds before the start. This is the fifth Epsilon rocket launch. The first was held on September 14, 2013, the last one on January 18, 2019.
Epsilon is a Japanese light-class three-stage solid-propellant rocket designed to launch light spacecraft into orbit. The rocket is 24 meters high. It can deliver a payload weighing 1.2 tons into orbit.
