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 February, 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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