SS-520 – Spaceflight Now

September 29, 2026

Breaking News

[ September 29, 2026 ] NASA plans unpiloted Starliner test flight at end of year News
[ September 28, 2026 ] Starship returns to Earth; rocket splashes down north of Hawaii after three-hour flight Mission Reports
[ September 28, 2026 ] Launch preview: SpaceX to launch first Starlink V3 satellites to orbit on Starship Mission Reports
[ September 26, 2026 ] Next crew bound for the space station arrive in Florida Mission Reports
[ September 25, 2026 ] SpaceX Falcon 9 launches classified mission for U.S. Space Force from West Coast Falcon 9

Souped-up sounding rocket lifts off from Japan with tiny satellite

February 2, 2018 Stephen Clark

A modified sounding rocket originally designed to loft science instruments on high-altitude suborbital arcs blasted off Saturday from the Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan and soared into orbit to become the world’s smallest satellite launcher.

Experimental flight of Japanese sounding rocket falls short of orbit

January 16, 2017 Stephen Clark

A small research rocket launched from Japan fell into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday after attempting to send a student-built CubeSat into orbit, Japanese officials said.

Launch of experimental Japanese rocket scrubbed

January 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

The launch of an experimental fin-stabilized Japanese rocket with a shoebox-sized CubeSat was scrubbed Tuesday, pushing back a test flight to demonstrate how companies and institutions can inexpensively put small satellites in space.