TRICOM-1

Launch data: Designation  F01486 / 17F01 Launch date  14 Jan 2017 - 23:33 UT Launch site  Uchinoura Launch vehicle  SS-520-4 Mission  Technology Decay  14 Jan 2017

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• TRICOM 1 is a 3 kg spin stabilized satellite featuring a store and forward communication equipment and an earth imaging camera. The CubeSat is launched without the usual deployer and is base mounted on the launch vehicle without the usual guiding rails or tabs.
• The Store and forward mission is to collect the data that is transmitted from the ground terminal while orbiting the Earth, transfer the data at the direction of the ground station.
• The earth imaging mission is to use four main cameras and a sub-camera during the initial operation to allow imaging the ground even in an unstable state.

Mission details:

• On Jan 14, 2017 Japan attempted to launch a single cubesat into orbit with a launch vehicle massing less than 3 tonnes. The SS-520 sounding rocket was furnished with a 78 kg third stage which was intended to orbit a 3U, 3 kg cubesat, TRICOM-1. The mission was flight SS-520-4 (SS-520-1 and 2 were normal sounding rocket flights; 3 has not yet flown.) However, telemetry was lost 20 seconds into flight, during first stage burn.
• Following range safety rules, the command to ignite stage 2 was not sent and the vehicle flew a suborbital path to about 200 km altitude and then splashed down in the ocean. The record smallest successful orbital launch vehicle remains the 9.4-tonne Lambda 4S, also Japanese, which was retired in 1979.
  (For comparison, the Pegasus XL is 23 tonnes, not even counting the mass of the airliner that launches it!).