Overview
- H3 No.6 lifted off from Tanegashima on June 12, 2026, and JAXA reported the second stage reached its target orbit while six small satellites were believed to have separated successfully.
- The mission was the debut of the '30' configuration, a lighter, lower-cost H3 that uses three LE-9 liquid engines and no solid rocket boosters, and it was Japan’s first rocket flight powered only by liquid-fuel engines.
- Payloads included six university and research satellites such as the Institute of Science Tokyo’s Umitsubame ocean-observation camera and Shizuoka University’s Shiraito debris-removal technology demonstrator.
- The flight ends a months-long grounding after a December 2025 second-stage engine malfunction and follows a failed maiden launch in March 2023, leaving the H3 with two failures in seven attempts overall.
- The wider test is whether H3 can sustain frequent, reliable flights to meet JAXA and Mitsubishi’s goal of six to eight launches a year and to compete with large commercial providers for civilian and national security customers.