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Old 02-03-2018, 11:41 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Default Smallest SLV is in orbit! (links)

Hello All,

Congratulations to JAXA (Japan Aerospace EXploration Agency, see: http://global.jaxa.jp/ ) are in order, for orbiting a satellite with the world’s smallest and lightest SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) today! The student-built, approximately 3-kilogram TRICOM 1R test satellite was launched into orbit from Japan’s Uchinoura Space Center aboard the SS-520-5 vehicle, a two-stage SS-520 sounding rocket fitted with a nitrogen-jet stabilization system and a third stage. At 9.5 meters (31 feet) tall, 520 millimeters (about 20 inches) in diameter, and weighing just 2.6 metric tons, the all-solid propellant vehicle is by far the smallest rocket ever to achieve orbit. Also:

While JAXA has no plans to commercialize the vehicle, this test flight—a re-flight of last year’s failed SS-520-4 launch attempt—was conducted in order to validate low-cost technologies and launch operations procedures to be incorporated into a future nanolauncher (one possible design is the SS-520-derived NL-520, see Reply #16 *here*: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/in...p?topic=40509.0 ) for lofting small satellites into user-selected orbits, on their schedules. Below are links to information, photographs, and video coverage on/of the SS-520-5/TRICOM 1R mission:

http://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/0...1r-test-launch/ (a video and an ascent events timeline are included)

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2018/02/20...ss-520-5_j.html (the English button is in the upper right-hand corner)

http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ss-520-5+rocket (YouTube SS-520-5 video links), and:

http://www.google.com/search?source...0 .i2o74SGLJy4 (*lots* of links here, including to video coverage)

I hope this material will be helpful.
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