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Japan To Resume Rocket Launches After Spy Satellite Flop
Japan said Thursday it would try again to launch its domestically developed H-2A rocket in early 2005 following last year's aborted mission to try to send two spy satellites to monitor North Korea. The seventh launch of the H-2A rocket, which is central to Japan's space program, will take place in January or in February and the rocket will carry a weather satellite, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. "Following the failed launch of the sixth H-2A rocket, we have been carefully reviewing our rocket project and now we are making preparations for the seventh launch early next year," said an agency spokeswoman. Tokyo spent 120 billion yen (1.2 billion dollars) developing the H-2A rocket before its first launch in 2001. 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. The failed test was seen as an embarrassment as it came just one month after China became the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to launch a successful manned space flight. The space agency has said a hole in the nozzle of a booster was to blame for the aborted mission as one of the H-2A's two rocket boosters failed to separate from the fuselage in the second phase of the flight. The sixth H-2A rocket was carrying two spy satellites to monitor military moves in North Korea. Japan was shocked after Pyongyang's ballistic missile flew over the country into the Pacific Ocean in August 1998. In March 2003, Japan sent up its first spy satellites via the fifth H-2A rocket. All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Russia To Launch Indonesian Satellite
Moscow, Russia (UPI) Dec 07, 2004Russia will put an Indonesian satellite into orbit around the Earth in 2007 using an air-launch system, local media reported Tuesday. The system offered by the Russian Air Launch Aerospace Corporation includes an Antonov An-124-100AL carrier aircraft as a flying launch pad, a Polyot two-stage launch vehicle and an upper stage booster.
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