Japan's H3 Rocket Makes Comeback, Deploys Six Satellites on Return-to-Flight

Japan's JAXA successfully launched the H3 rocket on its first flight since December's failure, delivering six payloads—PETREL, STARS-X, BRO-22, VERTECS, HORN-L, and HORN-R—to their orbits from Tanegashima Space Center. The mission used the rocket's three LE-9 engines, marked the vehicle's return-to-flight, and confirmed nominal separation of all payloads about 16 minutes after liftoff, following a previous mishap caused by a damaged payload adapter.