Lambda is the name of a series of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

s. It consisted of the types Lambda 2, LS-A, LSC-3, Lambda 3, Lambda 4 and LS-C.

On February 11, 1970 the first Japanese satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 Ōsumi

Osumi (satellite)

Ōsumi is the name of the first Japanese artificial satellite put into orbit, named after the Ōsumi Province in the southern islands of Japan. It was launched on February 11, 1970 at 04:25 UTC with a Lambda 4S-5 rocket from Uchinoura Space Center by Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science,...

 was launched using a Lambda 4 rocket.

The Lambda series are not guided rockets, this is because guidance techniques can often be diverted to military affairs.

The Lambda 4 was launched nine times, five of these being failures. The first launch of the Lambda 4S

Lambda 4S

The Lambda 4S or L-4S was an experimental Japanese expendable carrier rocket. It was produced by Nissan and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and launched five times between 1966 and 1970 with Ōsumi technology demonstration satellites...

 rocket took place on September 26, 1966 from Kagoshima

Kagoshima, Kagoshima

is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southwestern tip of the Kyūshū island of Japan, and the largest city in the prefecture by some margin...

. A fourth stage attitude control failed resulting in loss of the vehicle and payload. The last launch date was September 1, 1974.