The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on a livestream on Tuesday, March 7, that the country's next-generation rocket crashed minutes into its inaugural demonstration flight.
It is considered to be a technological setback as Tokyo seeks to expand its space capabilities. JAXA's next-gen H3 rocket was unmanned but carried one payload, a satellite for Earth observation.
In this handout photo provided by NASA, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASAs SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina onboard at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on October 05, 2022 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
What To Know About the H3 Rocket
The H3 Launch Vehicle is the new flagship rocket of Japan, designed to provide great flexibility, reliability, and economic performance. H3 will provide many lineups based on the choice of two types of fairings, two or three first-stage engines (LE-9), and zero, two, or four solid rocket boosters (SRB-3) to accommodate different payload sizes and orbits.
The rocket's launch capabilities to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) will be the highest ever, estimated to outperform the previous H-IIA and H-IIB Launch Vehicles.
H3 was developed as a successor to H-IIA and H-IIB in order for Japan to continue independent access to space for the launch of satellites and probes, including vital government missions.
From the beginning of the development phase, JAXA and its prime contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), as well as other affiliated firms, have been working together to remodel the entire system in order to produce a low-cost, adaptable, and dependable rocket.
Japan intends to develop its own rockets and retain an autonomous capability to deliver payloads into space. The country's current operational rocket, H-IIA, is slated to fly again in the following year. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' H3 rocket is intended to replace that rocket and strengthen Japan's domestic spaceflight capability.
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H3 Rocket Self-Destruct After Failed Flight
The H3 rocket was unmanned but carried a satellite for Earth observation, The New York Times reported. It is meant to be Japan's premier spacecraft for launching satellites into orbit and beyond. While this is not a permanent setback for Japan's space program, it does imply that another H3 will need to be built before a second test.
On Tuesday morning, the H3 rocket, which is nearly 200 feet long, took off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. A live video broadcast supplied by the Japanese space agency showed the rocket as it lifted off on time under a brilliant sun with its two side boosters lofting it into the sky before tumbling down minutes later. The rocket was then propelled into orbit by the bigger main engine.
In the video taken in space, the vehicle's first stage is shown to be separating from the second stage, which is designed to propel the mission's cargo into a safe orbit around the Earth. However, an announcer on the television broadcast reported minutes later that officials on the ground were unable to certify that the rocket's second stage had begun firing.
The mission was lost around 15 minutes after launch as confirmed by authorities. The announcer said on the webcast that JAXA has sent a self-destruct command to the H3 rocket because there was no possibility of achieving the mission.
As a result, the rocket's second stage was deliberately destroyed to ensure that the wreckage landed in an area of the ocean where it will not pose any harm to people or property. More so, it meant that the rocket's payload called the Advanced Land Observation Satellite-3 was destroyed.
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