The H-2A, which carries a satellite that can forecast weather and navigate aircraft, took off through overcast skies at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Kagoshima prefecture at 6:25 pm (0925 GMT).

The 16.3 billion-yen (155 million-dollar) satellite separated successfully from the rocket, bringing claps of joy at the Tokyo headquarters of the space agency which feared another failure would be catastrophic.

Japan has sent up five H-2A rockets successfully but suffered a setback in November 2003 when it had to destroy the sixth H-2A rocket just 10 minutes after lift-off when one of two rocket boosters failed to separate from the main body.

The failure was all the more embarrassing as it came one month after China, Japan's neighbor and growing rival, became the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to launch a successful manned space flight.

The sixth and doomed H-2A rocket had been carrying two spy satellites to monitor military moves in North Korea. Japan was shocked after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over the country into the Pacific Ocean in August 1998.

Japan already sent up its first spy satellites in March 2003 via the fifth H-2A rocket.

Saturday's liftoff was delayed for 76 minutes due to a communication problem between the rocket and ground operations, a space agency spokeswoman said. The launch was originally scheduled Thursday but called off due to poor weather.

The rocket was spearheaded by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which will take over all production and marketing of the H-2A from April as part of government privatization.

"We think the success of the launch confirmed the credibility of the H-2A as a mainstay rocket but our company will make further efforts to improve its credibility," a statement said.

Tsukasa Mito, executive director of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, visited three shrines near the space center on the eve of the launch.

"I want to make this one a complete success," he said.

While few would feel Japan needs to prove itself in technology, the world's second largest economy is looking for a slice of the market in launching satellites.

The Japan Meteorological Agency, which will manage the new satellite on the H-2A, said it once considered using Europe's Ariane rocket because of the less than stable performance of the Japanese rockets.

The meteorological agency's Himawari-5 weather satellite is no longer functional. The agency is using a US satellite to forecast weather.

"We think we can eventually enter the commercial satellite launch market, in which we would be launching satellites for Japanese and foreign entities," said Masato Nakamura, spokesman for the space agency.

"Many countries, such as Europe, Russia and the United States, have also failed many times as they gained experience. We believe we are more advanced than many other countries," Nakamura said.

The 2003 incident was not the first failure for Japan's space program.

In November 1999, Japanese space authorities exploded a 24-billion-yenmillion dollar) H-2 rocket and a multi-functional weather satellite of the meteorological agency by remote control when it veered off-course after liftoff.

In February 1998, a 36-million-dollar satellite was lost in space despite a successful separation from an H-2 rocket because it was released at the wrong altitude and sent into an elliptical orbit.

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