JAXA to Launch H-3 Rocket in Feb.

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Tokyo, Dec. 23 (Jiji Press)--The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Friday that it will launch the new H-3 rocket on Feb. 12.

The rocket will be fired from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, between 10:37:55 a.m. and 10:44:15 a.m., carrying the Daichi-3, or ALOS-3, advanced optical satellite.

The H-3 rocket is a two-stage liquid-propellant rocket being developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. <7011> as a successor to the existing H-2A rocket. A liquid-propellant engine made simpler for cost cutting is used in the rocket's first stage.

JAXA initially planned to launch the H-3 rocket in fiscal 2020.

The debut launch was first postponed by one year after cracks were found in the turbine blades of the pump that sends fuel to the first-stage engine in May 2020.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press