The Unheard-of Record-Breaking Rocket: Unveiling the Tiny Titan of Space!

When you imagine a rocket soaring into the cosmos, you likely visualize a massive behemoth towering above nearby buildings and palm trees. It's a common notion that the rockets embarking on missions to the International Space Station and beyond are colossal structures, reaching heights akin to roller coasters rather than houses. However, contrary to this belief, a rocket doesn't have to be giant to conquer space. Today, we celebrate the smallest rocket ever to orbit Earth: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SS-520-5. Launched in 2018, this little marvel of engineering might just usher in a new era of space transportation by challenging traditional rocket designs.

Now, before you dismiss the SS-520-5 as still sizable, consider this perspective: it stands a mere 9.5 meters tall with a diameter of 0.5 meters. To put it into context, it's slim enough to hug! Compare that to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which propelled the Artemis I mission around the Moon in 2022. The SLS reaches a towering height of over 98 meters, equivalent to stacking more than ten SS-520-5 rockets on top of one another. The significant size disparity between these rockets lies in their intended tasks.

Space-faring rockets can be divided into three main types. Deep space rockets, like the SLS, boast colossal sizes to accommodate vast amounts of fuel and powerful engines necessary for journeys to, as the name suggests, deep space. Interestingly, NASA considers the Moon as deep space, which might not entirely match our perception. For instance, the Saturn V rocket, which carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was even more massive at 111 meters tall. However, groups worldwide have successfully launched rockets into deep space without resorting to these gigantic designs. For example, the Atlas V, tailored to carry scientific equipment rather than humans, measures around 60 meters tall.

The most common type of rocket utilized today is the orbital rocket. These rockets transport cargo, such as satellites or astronauts, into space with sufficient speed to maintain lower Earth orbits. Renowned examples of orbital rockets are the Russian Soyuz and SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, crucial for missions to the International Space Station. Their heights range from 45 to 75 meters, and while smaller than the SLS, they remain far too massive to be hugged... especially if you're alone!

The SS-520-5 is substantially smaller than the SLS because its primary purpose is to send payloads into low Earth orbit, not deep space. Standing at just 9.5 meters tall, it's even tinier compared to typical orbital rockets. The SS-520-5 is, in fact, a modified suborbital rocket. Suborbital rockets possess enough thrust to reach the Kármán line, an arbitrary boundary at 100 kilometers above Earth, marking the edge of space. However, they lack the speed required to stay in orbit and instead fall back into the atmosphere after their engines shut off.

The team behind the SS-520-5 aimed to construct the smallest and most affordable rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit. They began with a tiny suborbital Japanese rocket known as the SS-520, designed for sounding missions, where scientific instruments are lofted into space briefly to collect data. To convert the SS-520 into an orbital rocket, the team made two significant modifications.

Firstly, it needed to increase its speed significantly. The key difference between orbital and suborbital flight is velocity. While a suborbital rocket reaches a maximum altitude of 125 kilometers by traveling at 6,000 kilometers per hour, an orbital rocket needs to fly nearly five times faster to achieve a 125-kilometer orbit. To achieve this tremendous speed, the team added a third set of rocket engines on top of the original two used in the SS-520.

Secondly, the rocket required a precise turn at the right moment. Standard-sounding rockets fly straight up into space and fall back in a U-turn trajectory. However, to attain orbit, the SS-520-5 had to fly straight up, then turn horizontally and accelerate. A reaction control system was added between the first and second stages to achieve this maneuver. After the first stage depleted its fuel and was ejected, jets of nitrogen gas helped turn the rocket and maintained its position, enabling it to achieve the required high speeds. These alterations transformed the SS-520 into the SS-520-5.

The most crucial cargo carried by the SS-520-5 into orbit was a tiny satellite known as a CubeSat. These standardized satellites, with built-in "U" dimensions of 10 cm square and weighing only 1.3 kilograms, are versatile tools for various tasks in space. The SS-520-5's payload included communications equipment and five small cameras that captured images of Earth for six months. By employing small rockets like the SS-520-5 to launch individual CubeSats, researchers can gain flexibility and faster access to space, especially for short-term research projects.

While large rockets like the SLS can carry multiple CubeSats at once, their development often spans years. Smaller rockets like the SS-520-5 present a more enticing future alternative for swift and affordable access to space for individual payloads. If proven financially viable, these miniature rockets might revolutionize space transportation. For now, we celebrate the SS-520-5 as the champion of tiny space rockets, breaking records and pushing the boundaries of space exploration.