H3 – Spaceflight Now

April 7, 2026

Breaking News

[ April 5, 2026 ] Artemis astronauts send down Easter message, prep for lunar fly around Monday Artemis
[ April 3, 2026 ] ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket launches its heaviest payload ever with fifth Amazon Leo mission Atlas 5
[ April 2, 2026 ] Artemis 2 crew blasts off on historic moon mission Artemis
[ April 1, 2026 ] Live coverage: NASA to launch Artemis 2, its first Moon-bound mission with astronauts since 1972 Artemis
[ March 30, 2026 ] Falcon 9 booster launches for record 34th time on Starlink delivery mission Falcon 9

H3 rocket suffers upper stage anomaly, fails to correctly deploy navigation satellite

December 22, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The Dec. 22 launch was the fourth and final flight of an H3 rocket in 2025.

Japanese space science missions facing delays after H3 rocket failure

April 11, 2023 Stephen Clark

The launch of a Japanese X-ray telescope and robotic lunar lander has been delayed to no earlier than August, and the launch schedule for another Japanese mission to return samples from a moon of Mars is in doubt as engineers investigate the failure of Japan’s first H3 rocket last month.

Phobos sample return mission enters development for 2024 launch

February 20, 2020 Stephen Clark

Japan’s space agency has approved a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday.