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Fnord666 writes:

This weekend Japan tried to launch a 3kg cubesat into orbit aboard its multi-stage, SS-520 rocket. Were it to have succeeded, the SS-520 would have become the smallest rocket to ever deliver a payload into orbit. Alas, the rocket did not make it.

According to the Japanese Exploration Agency, or JAXA, the sounding rocket launched on Sunday morning from the Uchinoura Space Center on the country's southernmost main island, Kyushu. Although the first stage fired normally, a preplanned check between first-stage separation and the second ignition did not show consistent telemetry data. This prevented the firing of the second stage, and the rocket fell into the Pacific Ocean, southeast of the spaceport.

Measuring 9.65 meters tall, the SS-520 rocket had a diameter of just 0.52 meters and weighed a total of 2.6 tons. It was hoped that, with further development, the SS-520 rocket could ultimately lift a payload of 140kg up to 800 km above the Earth's surface.

That's not much bigger than many of the hobbyist rockets in use today.

Source: Ars Technica

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