Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

VEP 4, CE-SAT-1E & TIRSAT

H3-22

SUCCESS
Success

Saturday, February 17, 2024 · 00:22 UTC

Mission

/01

New test flight of the H3 ordered following the failure of the inaugural launch of H3 in March 2023 with ALOS-3. Main payload is VEP 4 (Vehicle Evaluation Payload 4), a 2.6 tonnes mass simulator payload that will be carried on the 2nd test flight of the H3 rocket, instead of the ALOS-4 Earth observation satellite as originally planned. It will be deployed after the 2nd de-orbit burn is completed to test the payload separation mechanism. 2 hitchhiking secondary payloads have been selected in June 2023: * CE-SAT-1E - 70 kilograms class optical Earth observation satellite from Canon Electronics Inc., similar to the previously launched CE-SAT-1. * TIRSAT - 3U cubesat by Japan Space Systems and other institutes to test an infrared sensor for Earth surface observation purposes.

Mission Type

Test Flight

Orbit

Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO)

Probability

N/A

Status

Launch Successful

Vehicle & Pad

/02

Rocket

H3-22

Variant: 22

Launch Pad

Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2

Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

30.401° N, 130.976° E

11

Pad Launches

90

Location Launches

50

Agency Launches

32

Orbital This Year

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