Japan Space Agency Delays Launch of Upgraded Observation Satellite on New H3 Rocket Due to Weather

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency said Friday that this weekend’s planned launch of a satellite on its new H3 rocket will be postponed until Monday due to expected bad weather.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said it is postponing the launch because of rain and thunder forecast for Saturday night, when the rocket was to be moved to the launch site at the Tanegashima Space Center on an island in the southwest. from Japan.

The launch was initially scheduled for Sunday.

The rocket will carry an Advanced Earth Observation Satellite, ALOS-4, primarily tasked with Earth observation and data collection for disaster response and mapping, as well as monitoring military activities, such as missile launches, with an infrared sensor. developed by Defense. Ministry. ALOS-4 is the successor to the current ALOS-2 and can observe a much wider area. Japan will operate both for now.

The launch will be the third for H3, after a successful launch on February 17, which followed a shocking failed debut flight a year earlier, when the rocket had to be destroyed along with its payload – a satellite that was supposed to be ALOS-3.

Japan views a stable and commercially competitive space transportation capability as fundamental to the country’s space program and national security.

JAXA and its main contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, have been developing the H3 as a successor to its current mainstay, the H-2A, which is expected to retire after two more flights. MHI will eventually take over production and launches of the H3 from JAXA and hopes to make it commercially viable, reducing the launch cost to about half that of the H-2A.