JAXA flies H3 in its boosterless 30 configuration with six satellites aboard
JAXA · Mitsubishi Heavy Industries · Unseenlabs
H3 flight No.6 flew as planned from Tanegashima; per SpaceNews it debuted the three-engine, zero-booster H3-30S variant.
what happened
JAXA launched H3 flight No.6, the 30 configuration test vehicle, at 09:53 JST on June 12 from Tanegashima, saying the vehicle flew as planned and the second stage reached its predetermined orbit with all six payload separations confirmed, including PETREL and STARS-X. Per SpaceNews, this was the first flight of the H3-30S configuration, with three LE-9 first-stage engines and no solid rocket boosters, and per Kyodo via Nikkei Asia, JAXA said it was Japan's first rocket launch powered solely by liquid-fuel engines. SpaceNews counts this as the eighth H3 flight overall; JAXA's own numbering calls it flight No.6.
why it matters
The boosterless H3-30S is the cheapest H3 variant, and per Kyodo its success completes the vehicle's three-configuration lineup, the version MHI needs to compete on price for commercial smallsat and constellation work. The manifest also carried BRO-22 for France's Unseenlabs, which per SpaceNews called it the first non-Japan-built satellite on H3, arranged by Space BD, a sign the vehicle is starting to win foreign commercial payloads.
for who
Launch buyers comparing non-US vehicles, Japanese industry watchers
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- JAXA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Unseenlabs
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-06-12
- Published
- 2026-07-08 12:35 UTC