It is the first time that the H-2A series, which made its maiden flight in August 2001, will take a satellite commissioned by another country into orbit, Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) said.

The rocket, with a payload of four satellites in all, is set to blast off from the NASDA space centre on the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima sometime between 10:31am and 10:47 am (0131 and 0147 GMT).

"Fine weather is forecast for tomorrow morning and there will be no problem," NASDA spokeswoman Maki Iwata said.

One of the satellites is the 11.2 million-dollar FedSat, Australia's first home-grown satellite in 35 years, which carries communications, space science, navigation and computing systems.

FedSat is due to conduct experiments in communications, global positioning systems, space science, remote sensing and engineering research during its three-year design life.

Australian Science Minister Peter McGauran said earlier this month that FedSat would bring "tangible material benefits for Australians, especially rural Australians, because it explores the possibilities of new satellite broadband access."

Japan charges no fee for the FedSat launch but will be provided with some of data gathered by the satellite under barter deal.

The fourth H2-A to be launched will also put into orbit the ADEOS-2, one of the world's biggest earth observation satellites.

The ADEOS, an acronym of advanced earth observation satellite, has been developed by NASDA at a cost of 70 billion yen (570 million dollars) to replace its predecessor which broke down 10 months after it was launched in

Equipped with five US and French-made sensors, it will gather data on global weather changes during its three-year lifespan.

The two other satellites will monitor the behaviour of whales in the ocean and demonstrate technologies of on-board equipment, including remote control of cameras.

It is the first time a Japanese rocket has carried so many satellites at one time.

Development of the H-2A, representing the fifth generation of mainstay NASDA rockets, was delayed until 1996, after a series of failures involving its predecessor, the H-2.

Its second prototype was sent up last February. The launch was a success but a satellite it was carrying failed to release and deploy.

In September, the third H2-A rocket went off smoothly and put a satellite and test module into orbit, boosting NASDA's aspirations to enter the launch market, dominated by the United States and Europe.

The fourth H-2A rocket is 53 meters long and weighs 286 tonnes. Its manufacturing and launch costs total 9.4 billion yen (76 million dolllars).

NASDA has launched a foreign-made satellite only once before. In 1997, a H-2 rocket put into orbit a satellite for observing tropical rains in a joint project with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

SPACE.WIRE