Feb 26 2005
From The Space Library
Japan successfully launched a geostationary weather satellite MTSAT-1R aboard an H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, after a glitch in communications between the rocket and ground systems had caused a 76-minute delay. The launch was Japan's first launch of a heavy-lift vehicle since November 2003, when one of the H-2A's solid boosters had failed to jettison as expected after completing its burn, causing the launch to fail. In the failed launch, Japan had lost the second pair of the four spy satellites that it had built after North Korea had fired a missile into Japanese territory in 1998. The other pair of the four satellites~ one optical and one radar-sounding satellite~ were all Japan had left to monitor its threatening neighbor. Furthermore, the launch failure had dashed Japan's plans to enter the commercial satellite-launch business and had caused Japan to lose its international credibility. The successful launch of the MTSAT-1R restored morale to Japan's rocketry program. A second mission of the MTSAT-1R was to replace a satellite lost in November 1999 when the final H-2 rocket, the predecessor of H-2A, had failed to reach orbit. Japan had designed the MTSAT-1R to service the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau and the Japan Meteorological Agency, fulfilling the two missions of facilitating air-traffic management and obtaining satellite imagery for meteorologists. (Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 616; James Brooke, “After Failures, Space Effort in Japan Gets a Lift,” New York Times, 28 February 2005; Justin Ray, “Beleaguered H-2A Rocket Roars Into Orbit,” Spaceflight Now, 26 February 2005.)
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