Mission Description

New test flight of the H3 ordered following the failure of the inaugural launch of H3 in March 2023 with ALOS-3. Main payload is VEP 4 (Vehicle Evaluation Payload 4), a 2.6 tonnes mass simulator payload that will be carried on the 2nd test flight of the H3 rocket, instead of the ALOS-4 Earth observation satellite as originally planned. It will be deployed after the 2nd de-orbit burn is completed to test the payload separation mechanism. 2 hitchhiking secondary payloads have been selected in June 2023: * CE-SAT-1E - 70 kilograms class optical Earth observation satellite from Canon Electronics Inc., similar to the previously launched CE-SAT-1. * TIRSAT - 3U cubesat by Japan Space Systems and other institutes to test an infrared sensor for Earth surface observation purposes.