07.03.2023
The launch of Japan’s new medium launch vehicle H3 failed due to an engine problem. The setback hit the country’s space ambitions and its goal of competing with Musk’s SpaceX.
(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) This Tuesday (March 7), Japan’s attempt to launch its next-generation H3 launch vehicle failed because the launcher’s engine failed to ignite in space.
so far,Musk’s SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicleDominating the market, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) originally intended to compete with the H3 rocket.
What happened during the launch?
The launch of the H3 rocket has been delayed for several years.An attempt to lift the launcher to space failed last month because its booster did not ignite.
A second attempt from the Inabashima space center appeared to be successful on Tuesday, when the rocket lifted off at 10:37 a.m. Japan time. However, problems started to arise when the rocket was about 300 kilometers above the ground.
The rocket’s second-stage engine failed to ignite as it reached space. “Because there is no possibility of achieving the mission, a destroy order has been sent to H3,” the command center said in a live broadcast.
Commentators for JAXA said the agency would investigate the cause of the failure.
The H3 rocket failed to ignite on February 17, 2023
What can the H3 rocket do?
This next-generation launch vehicle is equipped with the ALOS3 satellite for disaster management land observation. Manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the rocket can deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
It may also detect North Korean ballistic missile launches with its experimental infrared sensor design.
High-efficiency rockets?
The cost per launch of the H3 is estimated to be nearly half that of its predecessor, the H-2, according to MHI, enabling it to compete in a global market dominated by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
A report released last September by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated the cost of a Falcon 9 launch in low Earth orbit at about $2,600 per kilogram. By comparison, H-II costs about $10,500 per kilogram in similar conditions.
If successful, the Japanese rocket would be ahead of the European Space Agency’s latest low-cost rocket, Ariane 6, which is scheduled to launch later this year.
Professor Hirotaka Watanabe, a space policy expert at Osaka University, said the launch failure “would have serious implications for Japan’s future space policy, space business and technological competitiveness.”
Technology environment |
04.03.2021
(Reuters, AFP, DPA)
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