Japan Successfully Launches Record-Breaking Rocket

hey! writes: Last week the Japan Space Agency JAXA successfully placed a 3 kg cubesat into a 180 by 1,500 kilometer orbit at 31 degrees inclination to the equator. The payload was launched on a modified sounding rocket, called the SS-520-5. The assembled rocket weighed a mere 2600 kg on the launchpad, making the SS-520-5 the smallest vehicle ever to put an object into orbit.

Note that the difference in the SS-520's modest orbital capacity of 4kg and its ability to launch 140 kg to 1000 km on a suborbital flight. That shows how much more difficult it is to put an object into orbit than it is to merely send it into space.