Japan has become the fourth space nation to recover an operational spacecraft from orbit. The Japanese Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System capsule, which carried three small electric furnaces for a series of crystal growth materials experiments and was launched by an H-2 booster on 10 September 2002, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan on 30 May. It was jettisoned from the Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer satellite, which has remained in orbit to conduct further research.
Source: Flight International
