Japan’s moon rocket set to launch on Thursday

Japan’s moon rocket set to launch on Thursday

An earlier attempt to launch the H-IIA rocket was suspended because of high winds.

The H-IIA rocket has been Japan’s flagship space launch vehicle, with 45 successful launches in 46 tries since 2001. (AP pic)
TOKYO:
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) said today it planned to launch its H-IIA rocket carrying a moon lander on Thursday morning after unfavourable wind conditions led to a postponement last month.

The rocket is scheduled to take off from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan at 8.42am local time, with a launch window open until Sept 15, the company said.

The new schedule was announced a week after the previous launch attempt, which would have carried Japan’s first spacecraft to land on the moon, was suspended because of high winds.

H-IIA, jointly developed by JAXA and MHI, has been Japan’s flagship space launch vehicle, with 45 successful launches in 46 tries since 2001. After JAXA’s new medium-lift H3 rocket failed in its debut in March, the agency postponed the launch of H-IIA No 47 for several months to investigate the cause.

Hoping to help accelerate Japan’s aerospace development initiatives, Japan may subsidise JAXA with about 10 billion yen in the fiscal year 2024, the Yomiuri newspaper reported today.

JAXA will use this subsidy to pay companies and universities involved in the development of satellites, rockets, and lunar exploration technologies, the report said.

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