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The H3 successfully launched after a failed attempt last month when the vehicle's two solid rocket boosters failed to ignite as planned, and aborted right at liftoff.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) launched Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) H3 rocket's maiden flight on Tuesday at 10:37 a.m. Japan Standard Time (0137 GMT) from Launch Pad No. 2, Tanegashima Space Center. However, about 7 minutes into the flight, JAXA's launch commentator on live feed later stated that the rocket's velocity appeared to start decreasing after staging and that second stage ignition could not be confirmed.
"The second stage ignition has not been confirmed yet. We continue to confirm the situation," JAXA officials just announced from the range control center at Tanegashima Space Center.
FTS (Flight Termination System) was activated to destroy the second stage as there was "no possibility of achieving the mission"
This was the second launch attempt after a delay caused by a failed ignition sequence. The H3's first attempt was aborted on February 17th due to a problem with the electrical system that powers the rocket's first-stage LE-9 engines.
H3 lost its payload, Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3), also known as Daichi-3, into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). ALOS-3 is an advanced Earth-observing satellite to be used for cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring, and resource surveying.
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