Cheaper rocket from japan

rocket from japan

Japan on Tuesday canceled the launch of the new rocket it hopes would have been a cheaper and much more efficient way of putting satellites into space, saying it suffered a problem that aborted the countdown 19 seconds prior to being designed to blast off.


Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency official Yuko Hoshikawa said an automatic countdown for your three-stage Epsilon rocket stopped when an irregularity in the rocket posture was detected. No further details were immediately entirely on the scrapped launch from your space target the southern Japan island of Kyushu.

JAXA President Naoki Okumura said the reason for the problem is under investigation and the man could not say how soon the launch could be rescheduled.

"Locating the cause is our first of all task," he told a televised news conference. "We must examine so what happened today, and our next launch depends on might know about learn."

The Epsilon could be the first new rocket design for Japan since H2A was introduced in 2001. The H2A is still Japan's primary rocket but officials are hoping progression of the Epsilon will result in improvements in the much more costly H2A program too. Japan wishes to compete more aggressively in the international rocket-launching business.

"We are so sorry we failed to surpass the expectations," Okumura said.

Japan's space policy minister Ichita Yamamoto said Tuesday's launch cancellation was unfortunate but it doesn't change Japan's policy to put Epsilon as a centerpiece of Japanese space business.

"I really hope the cause is promptly identified and necessary measures are taken so that we can easily go to a successful launch as quickly as possible," he stated.