At 0422 GMT on 3 December 2014, a Japanese H2A launch vehicle successfully lifted off from the Tanegashima launch site in Japan carrying the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft which is planned to rendezvous with an asteroid (1999 JU3) in 2018. As part of the mission, Hayabusa-2 carries a small “landing party” of landers including at 1kg each Minerva II-1a, -1b and -1c, a 10 kg lander called mascot, 5 small “target markers” and an “Self Contained Impactor” and a DCAM 3 monitoring sub-satellite.
Other payloads carried by the H2A launch included an “art in space” project Artsat-2 with its amateur radio payload. Shin’en 2 communications test satellite, a technology test satellite called Procyon which will use an ion-drive to navigate to another asteroid.
