Epsilon S

Active

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Sept. 14, 2013

Description

The Epsilon S rocket is a Japanese solid-fuel rocket designed to launch scientific satellites. It is a follow-on project to the larger and more expensive M-V rocket which was retired in 2006. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) began developing the Epsilon in 2007. The first stage is based on SRB-3, the strap-on solid-rocket booster of H3

Specifications
  • Stages
    4
  • Length
    24.4 m
  • Diameter
    2.5 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    2.5 m
  • Launch Mass
    91.0 T
  • Thrust
    2158.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Epsilon S
  • Family
  • Variant
    S
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Epsilon S
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $39000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    600.0 kg

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Government
Administrator: Hiroshi Yamakawa
JAXA 2003

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan's national aero-space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and the launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions, such as asteroid exploration and possible manned exploration of the Moon. JAXA launch their Epsilon vehicle from the Uchinoura Space Center and their H-II vehicles from the Tanegashima Space Center.

Upcoming Spaceflights


Epsilon S | JV-LOTUSat-1

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | Japan
Uchinoura Space Center, Japan
TBD December, 2025
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:

Vietnamese Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth observation satellite build by NEC Corporation of Japan, based on Japan's ASNARO 2 satellite and the NEXTAR NX-300L satellite bus. The satellite will contribute to measures against natural disasters and climate change in Vietnam.

Sun-Synchronous Orbit
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Epsilon S | RAISE-4 & others

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | Japan
Uchinoura Space Center, Japan
TBD December, 2025
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:

RAISE-4 (RApid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite-4) is a satellite for on-orbit demonstrations of 15 demonstration components and equipment selected by public solicitation. The satellite will be operated in response to requests from the demonstration theme proposers, and will provide experimental data of the demonstration devices and environmental data during the experiments. 10 of the demonstrations are re-flight of those planned for RAISE-3, which failed to reach orbit in October 2022.

Sun-Synchronous Orbit
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Epsilon S | SOLAR-C

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | Japan
Uchinoura Space Center, Japan
TBD November, 2028
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:

SOLAR-C is a Japan-led international mission with the cooperation by the US and European countries. It aims to gain new insights into the fundamental physical mechanisms driving solar plasma dynamics by performing three simultaneous UV observations. The first consists to observe the broad range of temperatures, spanning over three orders of magnitude from the 10,000 Kelvin chromosphere to the million Kelvin corona, and even to the 15 million Kelvin solar flares. The second consists to resolve the elemental structures at high spatial (0.4 arcsec) and temporal (1 sec) resolution and trace their evolutions by increasing the ability to collect the solar UV rays 10 to 30 times as much as before. The third consists to conduct a high dispersion spectroscopy (equivalent to a velocity resolution of 2 km/s) to obtain spectroscopic information that enables quantitative diagnostics (such as velocity, temperature, density, ionization degree, and abundance). By combining the three observations, SOLAR-C can analyze the dynamically evolving solar atmospheres over a wide altitude range from the chromosphere to the corona while resolving elemental structures.

Sun-Synchronous Orbit
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Electron
Success
3 hours, 59 minutes ago
Full Stream Ahead (BlackSky Gen-3 2)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

2nd of the BlackSky Gen-3 high resolution Earth-imaging satellites.


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 7 hours ago
Starlink Group 11-18
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


New Shepard
Success
2 days, 14 hours ago
NS-32
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-32 is the 12th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 32nd in its history.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 10 hours ago
GPS III SV08
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Eighth of ten GPS III missions.


Long March 4B
Success
4 days, 23 hours ago
Shijian 26
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Chinese experimental satellite claimed to be for "Earth observation & environmental management" purposes, details not known.