H3-30S F6 : H3-30 Test Flight (VEP-5 & others) : Tanegashima : NET summer 2025

[Galactic Penguin SST]

During today’s Japanese government (MEXT)’s committee meeting on space development, JAXA has announced they are planning a dedicated test flight of the H3 rocket’s “-30” variant with 3 LE-9 engines on the first stage and no SRBs during Fiscal Year 2025.

The launch will target a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) with a dummy payload as the main payload, and several hitchhiking satellites planned as well. Some of the candidates include:

* PETREL (Tokyo Institute of Technology, ~50kg)
* STARS-X (Shizuoka University, ~50kg)
* VERTECS (Kyushu Institute of Technology, 6U cubesat)
* HORN L/R (BULL, Japan, 6U cubesats x 2)
* “BRO-x” (Unseen Labs, France, 8U cubesat)

Source: https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20240927-mxt_uchukai01-000038107_3.pdf

[GewoonLukas_]

Seems like there will be a press briefing about the status of this flight next week:

[Scheduled to be broadcast] 5/8 14:00~ Press briefing on the development status of the H3 rocket and the H3 rocket No. 6 (30 forms) 1-stage actual tank stage combustion test (CFT)

A press briefing on the development status of the H3 rocket and the status of preparations for the launch of the H3 Launch Vehicle No. 6 (Type 30 Test Vehicle), including an overview of the test outline of the H3 Launch Vehicle (Type 30) Tank Stage Combustion Test (CFT), will be live-streamed.



(Google Translate from Japanese)

[GewoonLukas_]

First picture of the first stage with the 3 LE-9 engines:

https://twitter.com/mageshiman1025/status/1918118772759793969

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Press conference:



A Captive Firing Test/static test fire of the first stage is planned at the pad NET May 26: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20250508/k10014800021000.html

[Bean Kenobi]

* “BRO-x” (Unseen Labs, France, 8U cubesat)

It's BRO-19.

Source : https://x.com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/1920402388608831916