H-IIA rocket successfully places satellite into orbit
Japan back in space race after 2003 failure
Compiled from AP, Kyodo
TANEGASHIMA, Kagoshima Pref. -- Fifteen months after Japan's last liftoff ended in a spectacular fireball, an orange and white H-IIA rocket blasted off Saturday on a mission officials hope will revive this country's once-proud space program. An H-IIA rocket with a satellite payload blasts off into the night sky Saturday from the Tanegashima Space Center off Kagoshima Prefecture. The 53-meter-tall rocket, with the word "Nippon" emblazoned on its side, lifted off into a cloudy sky just before sunset from the Tanegashima Space Center in the Pacific off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture. Forty minutes after the launch, the rocket successfully placed a multipurpose weather and navigation satellite into orbit. "The satellite separated from the rocket and is now in its initial orbit," Tsukasa Mito, an executive director at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, told a news conference. The satellite is due to start operating in May. Already delayed by bad weather earlier in the week, the launch of the H-IIA and its multipurpose satellite payload was pushed back by 75 minutes Saturday evening due to what officials described as communication difficulties between the rocket and flight controllers. The Multifunctional Transport Satellite 1 Replacement will take over for the aging Himawari 5 weather observation satellite that has ceased functioning. It will cover weather observation and air traffic control over vast areas of Asia and the Pacific. Japan has been relying on the U.S. satellite GOES-9 since May 2003 to provide visual images for weather forecasts. The new satellite is expected to increase the accuracy of weather predictions. The space agency has counted on a successful launch to help revive the reputation of the H-IIA, which serves as the centerpiece of the country's space program, and to demonstrate that Japan remains a viable contender in an increasingly heated space race with China. All H-IIA launches had been put on hold following a humiliating failure minutes after liftoff from the main pad here in November 2003. Controllers had to detonate that rocket and its payload of two spy satellites in midair after a booster failed to detach. Since the unsuccessful launch in 2003, the agency has redesigned the rocket's booster after determining that a hole in a nozzle caused the failure. As a result, the cost of the seventh H-IIA rocket launched Saturday soared to 12 billion yen. The total production cost including the satellite hit 28.3 billion yen. JAXA plans three more launches of the H-IIA by March 2006, which would carry another spy satellite and one more multipurpose weather and navigation satellite. Officials have stressed that the H-IIA, which was designed and built in Japan, has a relatively good -- if not perfect -- record. The 2003 failure came after five-straight successes, giving it an 83 percent success rate. Europe's Arianne 5 and China's Long March 3 both have about an 85 percent rate. Even so, Japanese hopes that the H-IIA would become an attractive competitor in the commercial space business have yet to pan out because of the rocket's high cost and infrequent launches. "I think in terms of cost we are already internationally competitive. What we lacked was the reliability," JAXA President Keiji Tachikawa said at the news conference, adding that Saturday's success was a step in the right direction. The Japan Times: Feb. 27, 2005
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Die japanische Raumfahrtbehörde JAXA hat am vergangenen Samstag um 18:25 JST (22:25 Uhr MEZ) die siebte Trägerrakete vom Typ H-IIA gestartet. Nach dem abgebrochenen Start im Jahre 2003 ist dies der Folgeversuch sich mit dem noch relativ neuen und leistungsfähigen Raketentyp wieder in die internationale Raumfahrtgemeinde einzugliedern.

Die 53 Meter lange Rakete schoss mit Verspätung aufgrund schlechter Witterung in den Abendhimmel und setzte 40 Minuten später einen neuen Wettersatelliten ab, der den bereits abgeschalteten '„Himawari 5“ ersetzen soll, sowie einen Fernmeldesatelliten. Hergestellt wurde die Rakete von Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. und Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Limited.