VEP-4

Second flight of Japan's H3 rocket and its first success, after the first H3 was destroyed in March 2023 with the ALOS-3 Earth observation satellite aboard. JAXA flew VEP-4, a 2.6-tonne mass simulator, in place of ALOS-4, a radar Earth observation satellite it had planned to launch.

VEP-4 separated from the second stage about 40 seconds after the stage's deorbit burn over the Indian Ocean. Stopper bolts limited its movement to about one centimetre, so payload and stage were meant to reenter together.