Japan launches world's tiniest satellite-carrying rocket

Wonder how much the rocket costs to make and launch ?

I guess it's not something I could launch from my back garden....

That's pretty neat!

At the other end of the spectrum, SpaceX is building the most powerful economical rocket:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/2/16954582/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-impact-nasa-deep-space-travel

The Falcon Heavy’s specs are impressive. The three-core rocket boasts 27 engines, more than any other working rocket has used before. Together, these engines provide more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, allowing the vehicle to put more than 140,000 pounds of cargo into lower Earth orbit. That’s more than twice the capability of any rocket currently on the market. And it will do almost as much as NASA’s new huge rocket at a fraction of the price.

SpaceX is known for its budget pricing. One flight of the company’s Falcon 9 starts at just $62 million. That’s a fraction of the cost ULA’s comparable Atlas V rocket, flights of which start at $109 million. And the Falcon Heavy will be cheap, too, starting at around $90 million each flight. SpaceX has also worked to bring down rocket costs even more by designing them to be partially reusable. SpaceX has figured out how to land its first stage boosters back on Earth, in order to fly them again, saving on manufacturing.

NASA already relies on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to send cargo to the International Space Station, and soon the company will be sending astronauts there, too. NASA could use the Falcon Heavy in similar ways. Using the Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 together, NASA could go back to the Moon for just $10 billion over a five- to seven-year period, according to a report from Miller of NexGen Space. (NASA’s yearly budget is $19 billion.) “Having affordable commercial heavy-lift is the only thing keeping NASA from going back to the Moon and on to Mars,” says Miller. “NASA has been trying this for over a decade, but it’s been unaffordable. If you can get a heavy lift launch vehicle for under $100 million it changes everything.”

If JAXA can build a rocket using just commercial components, so can lots of others... so seems to have limited commercial potential for JAXA. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch during a 3-hour window starting at 3:30AM on Wed Jan 7, Japan time (Tues 6, 13:30 EST local time in Florida). Mission updates can be seen here: https://spaceflightnow.com/category/falcon-heavy/ But SpaceX is also making a much larger rocket for Mars, called the 'BFR': https://www.space.com/38393-spacex-bfr-mars-colony-rocket-name.html

Mee again: Feb 7, not Jan 7!

My Japanese co-worker said today, that the rocket looked just like a missile and said some other tech stuff I don't know. 

Hadn't thought it could be Japan missile testing under the guise of launching a mini-satellite.

True Stealth p'raps.