Article Image

IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology

The Maiden Flight of the World's Tiniest Orbital Rocket Ends in Failure

• http://motherboard.vice.com

On Sunday, the Japanese space agency (JAXA) attempted to launch its experimental SS-520-4 rocket for the first time. Measuring 9.5 meters (32 feet) tall, about the size of a telephone pole, the rocket is the world's smallest and lightest booster designed to deliver satellites into orbit.

Unfortunately for JAXA, the maiden flight of this adorably tiny vehicle ended in failure. While the initial liftoff sequence and first stage performed normally, its communications system suffered a glitch and ceased transmissions about 20 seconds after the rocket blasted off from the Uchinoura Space Center, located near the town of Kimotsuki, in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The SS-520-4 was carrying an Earth-observation microsatellite orbital called TRICOM-1, a CubeSat-style spacecraft weighing 6.6 pounds, developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo. After the abort sequence, both the rocket and the satellite plummeted into the sea southeast of the space center, and have not been recovered.


ContentSafe