A

David

Darling

Japanese launch vehicles

The postwar story of Japanese rocketry began in 1955 with small solid-propellant rockets at the Institute of Industrial Science, Tokyo University, and led to a series of sounding rockets known as Kappa. Following this came the larger-scale Lambda, or L series, which launched Japan's first artificial satellite in 1970. More recent developments have included the M series, used by ISAS (Institute for Science and Astronautical Science), and the N series, H series, and J-1 used by NASDA (National Space Development Agency).