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M-V Launch Vehicle

M-V was the final and largest Mu-series launch vehicle, developed by the former ISAS and later operated within JAXA. The three-stage all-solid rocket could add a fourth-stage kick motor for high-energy missions and launched seven astronomy and planetary spacecraft between 1997 and 2006, with one launch failure.

M-V Launch Vehicle
NARITA Masahiro (Naritama) · The exact stored asset is 1280x960 with SHA-256 3150eee63c1d2c02c95bb548ef3e98f6aebfdf533f45fcc0181cd606b0269230. It byte-matches the current Wikimedia Commons file M-3SII exhibition model.jpg. The Commons record identifies NARITA Masahiro (Naritama) as the author and grants Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 International, with the GNU Free Documentation License 1.2 or later also offered: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M-3SII_exhibition_model.jpg and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Reuse is permitted under CC BY-SA 3.0 with attribution, a license link, and indication of changes if modified. The asset depicts the ISAS/JAXA Sagamihara Campus M-3SII full-scale exhibition model; this asset-level credit does not imply JAXA endorsement or assert that every placement depicts a distinct M-series variant. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
Mu-5Mu VM-5 rocketM-Vロケット
Family Name
M-V
Full Name
M-V Launch Vehicle
Status
retired
Type
rocket

Details

Description
M-V was the final and largest Mu-series launch vehicle, developed by the former ISAS and later operated within JAXA. The three-stage all-solid rocket could add a fourth-stage kick motor for high-energy missions and launched seven astronomy and planetary spacecraft between 1997 and 2006, with one launch failure.
Dimensions
Diameter
…
Height
…
First Flight Year
1,997
Last Flight Year
2,006
Parent Vehicle Family
Propulsion Configurations
  • Entries
    • Count
      1
      Placement
      core
      Propulsion System
      Role
      main
      Stage
      first-stage
      Variant Notes
      Single M-14 solid motor identified by JAXA as the M-V first-stage motor; the published M-14** suffix is retained as the M-14 model boundary because JAXA explains the asterisks as a Mu-series version notation rather than a separate installed model.
    • Count
      4
      Placement
      core
      Propulsion System
      Role
      attitude-control
      Stage
      first-stage
      Variant Notes
      Four M-V SMSJ solid side-jet systems for first-stage roll/attitude control; JAXA documents the count and role but does not publish a narrower motor suffix.
    • Count
      1
      Placement
      core
      Propulsion System
      Role
      main
      Stage
      second-stage
      Variant Notes
      Single M-25 solid motor identified by JAXA as the M-V second-stage motor.
    • Count
      1
      Placement
      upper
      Propulsion System
      Role
      upper-stage
      Stage
      third-stage
      Variant Notes
      Single M-34 solid motor identified by JAXA as the M-V third-stage motor.
    Name
    M-V exact three-stage configuration
    Notes
    JAXA identifies M-V as a three-stage all-solid launch vehicle with M-14, M-25, and M-34 stage motors. The four M-V SMSJ systems are included as first-stage attitude-control hardware. JAXA describes a fourth-stage kick motor as optional and mission-specific, so KM-V2 and payload-specific kick motors are intentionally omitted from this base configuration.
Rocket Specs
Liftoff Mass
…
Payload Capacity
LEO
…
Reusability
expendable
Stages Count
3

Links

Official Url
https://global.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/m_v/index.html
Wikipedia Url
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-V

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 13, 2026 at 11:51:53 UTC
Updated Time
August 1, 2026 at 18:15:12 UTC
Image
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