Rocket Girls

Rocket Girls (ロケットガール) is a Japanese light novel series by Hōsuke Nojiri. Set in the Solomon Islands, it follows the exploits of high-school girl Yukari Morita, who is pressed into service as an astronaut by a private Japanese space company called the Solomon Space Association when it is unable to build a rocket that can lift the weight of an adult male.

Rocket Girls was adapted into a 12-episode anime television series that aired between February and May 2007. It was produced with the assistance of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which included astronaut Naoko Yamazaki voicing herself in Episode 7. Bandai Entertainment had the license and released a subtitled-only Complete Collection DVD on October 28, 2008, before it closed its doors in 2011. Sentai Filmworks announced on September 27, 2018, that it would release the series on a subtitled-only SD-BD set on January 15, 2019.

Characters

 * Morita Yukari (Sendai Eri)
 * Matsuri (Nabatame Hitomi)
 * Miura Akane (Hasegawa Shizuka)
 * Morita Hiroko (Natsuki Rio)
 * Morita Hiroshi (Cho-, born Nagashima Yuuichi)
 * Nasuda Isao (Sugou Takayuki)

More characters are listed in the Japanese Wikipedia article: ja:ロケットガール.

LS-5 Rocket
The LS-5 is a multistage expendable rocket used by the Solomon Space Association (SSA) to launch the first Japanese crewed spaceflight. Although older than the LS-7, this rocket has had more successful launches. This rocket was also used to test the new hybrid-fuel. Three rockets of this type has been constructed so far. Their Command Module (CM) have been called Tanpopo (Dandelion) and Coconut.

LS-7 Rocket
The LS-7 was a multistage expendable rocket used by the Solomon Space Association (SSA). However, after several failed launches, the rocket was retired and replaced by the older LS-5.

List of light novels
The anime adaption covers titles 1 and 2.

Viz Media released the first volume with English translation in 2010. ISBN 978-1-4215-3642-2

OP/ED songs

 * Opening: "RISE" by ICHIKO
 * Ending (#1): "Ashite Iki no Bus ni Notte" by misae (eps. 1–11)
 * Ending (#2): "Waratte!" ("Smile!") by ICHIKO (ep. 12)