Japanese Mini Rocket Launch Delayed Due To Bad Weather

Companies have long been working on finding ways to launch satellites into space with minimum expenditure. Japan has prepared a mini rocket called SS-520-4 was supposed to launch a CubeSat, the size of an average shoebox. The rocket was scheduled for launch on Jan. 10 at 11:48 p.m. GMT from the Uchinoura Space Center situated in southern Japan's Kagoshima prefecture. However, the launch was called off a few minutes before the scheduled time due to the bad weather conditions at the base station.

The mini rocket is merely 31 feet (9.5 meters) tall and 20 inches (52 centimeters) in diameter. The launch was planned to blast off from the rail launch system of the space center and head towards the Pacific Ocean before dropping the payload enclosure.

The officials have not yet finalized the rescheduled date for launch of the SS-520-4 mini rocket. If done successfully, it will be the smallest rocket ever launched into space to deploy a satellite in orbit, Reuters reported.

The entire project cost was estimated at $3.5 million, which was provided by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japanese government. The program is an experimental model of Japan's space agency with the long-term goal of validating and encouraging the development of "nano-launcher" and application of low-cost technology and launch operation procedures for the deployment of commercial miniature satellites in the future, SpaceFlight Now reported.

The payload that the rocket was supposed to carry was TRICOM 1 spacecraft, which weighs only 3 kilograms. The spacecraft is a CubeSat, designed by the researchers at the University of Tokyo and intended towards improving communication systems and encouraging the conduct of Earth observation experiments.

The mini satellite launcher was developed based on Japan's SS-520 sounding rocket, which has already been used in two suborbital research missions in 1998 and 2000. The SS-520 was developed by the IHI Aerospace institute and JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The mini rocket that was developed on its basis is an experiment, and the TRICOM 1 CubeSat that was to be deployed was developed by students as an educational tool.