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H-IIA 2024 | USERS & DRTS

USERS & DRTS

Launch Successful

Launch Details

Date: 10 Sept 2002, 08:20 am UTC

Rocket: H-IIA (H-II)

Provider: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Mission

Type: Communications

Orbit: Geostationary Transfer Orbit

Pad: Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-1, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

Mission Description

USERS (Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System) was a Japanese microgravity experimental satellite. After 8.5 months in orbit, a reentry vehicle was to be returned to earth with the materials manufacturered in space. DRTS (Data Relay & Tracking Satellite) is an inter-satellite communications experiment satellite to relay data between the target spacecraft (low earth orbit satellites, space stations, etc.) and ground stations.