Japan on Friday halted the launch of its first new medium-lift rocket in three decades before the H3 vehicle was due to lift off after the secondary boosters strapped to its side failed to ignite.
During the live broadcast, the H3’s main engine shut down after the launch countdown reached zero, leaving the 57-meter (187 ft) rocket on the ground at Tanegashima Cosmodrome along with its payload, the ALOS-3 ground observation satellite. which is also equipped with an infrared sensor designed to detect North Korean ballistic missiles.
“A lot of people are watching our progress and we’re really sorry,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H3 project manager Masahisa Okada told a news conference as he wiped away tears.”It’s really annoying,” he added.
Okada said JAXA will aim for a second attempt by the end of March. Japan built the H3 to bolster its independent approach to space and bolster its chances of wresting a bigger share of the global launch market from rivals including Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
It is designed to launch government and commercial satellites into orbit and deliver supplies to the International Space Station. As part of Tokyo’s deepening cooperation with the United States in space, later variants will also carry cargo for the Gateway lunar space station, which NASA plans to build as part of its program to return humans to the moon.
The United States promised Japan a place on one of its crewed lunar missions. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the builder and launch manager of the H3, hopes the rocket will boost its space ambitions as SpaceX shakes up commercial launches with its reusable rockets, including the Falcon 9.
A September report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies puts the cost of launching the Falcon 9 into low orbit at $2,600 per kilogram. The equivalent price tag of the H3’s predecessor, the H-II, is $10,500. “With the H3, we’re trying to cut launch costs in half,” a Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman said ahead of the planned launch. A successful first mission would carry a Japanese rocket into space ahead of the planned launch this year of the European Space Agency’s new, cheaper Ariane vehicle.
Read Now :<strong>Rural recovery may cause another bout of Indian inflation, HSBC economists</strong>
