- Launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
- It is a solid fuel rocket
- Solid propellant will reduce costs up to one third
- Rocket released Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) satellite for studying radiation belts around the earth
- ERG satellite will orbit in a highly elliptical orbit, getting as close to Earth as 350 kilometers and as far away as 30,000 km.
- This path will take the satellite through the Van Allen radiation belts, where the earth’s magnetic field traps huge numbers of fast-moving electrons and other particles.
- These particles mainly damage the computer systems aboard satellites and pose a radiation danger to astronauts.
- The satellite will use nine different instruments for studying radiation belts over the course of a mission designed to last at least one year.