JAPAN: Japan’s much-anticipated launch of its flagship rocket was a snoozer, while competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX grows and the island nation seeks to strengthen its defence capabilities amid rising geopolitical tensions.
The side booster of the H3 rocket failed to ignite despite favourable weather conditions, according to officials on Friday morning. As the craft got ready to take off, sparks burst from it, but they sputtered to a stop in a matter of seconds.
Once the launch was aborted, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said during a live broadcast, “It’s expected that it will take longer to evaluate the situation.”
The H3, a 63-meter-high rocket that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. says provides a less expensive, more dependable alternative to rivals, took almost ten years to design and construct.
While the H3 cannot be reused, Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Inc. is working on a rocket that can.
The H3 was scheduled to launch for the first time on Friday morning from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwest Japan, utilising an explosive 267 tonnes of vertical force to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth and place the DAICHI-3 satellite into orbit.
The launch had been set to take place five days earlier, but bad weather forced two delays.
According to JAXA, the rocket’s unveiling was twice postponed due to problems with the main engine despite being scheduled for late last year.
The Japanese defence ministry is conducting the first-ever test of a sensor designed to detect missile launches in space as part of the satellite’s extensive instrumentation, which is installed aboard the rocket.
The H3 took over as the nation’s premier rocket from the H2-A, which made its debut in 2001.
In the next 20 years, JAXA plans to launch six satellites into space annually as nations compete for a piece of the expanding aerospace market. Price was the key concern for a very long time.
The H2-A had a similar payload capacity but cost more per launch ($90 million) than SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launcher ($67 million). JAXA estimates that it will cost $50 million to launch the H3 once.
The commercial satellite business produced $386 billion in 2021 and is still expanding, according to figures from the Satellite Industry Association, while rockets with significant payload capacity only make up a small portion of the world’s space economy.
According to data from the Satellite Industry Association, while heavy payload rockets only make up a small portion of the global space economy, the commercial satellite sector generated $386 billion in 2021 and is expected to continue growing.
Also Read: Japanese Prime Minister Fires Aide for “Outrageous” Anti-LGBTQ+ Remarks
