Japan's New H3 Rocket Launched with Earth Observation Satellite

TapTechNews July 1st news. Around 12:06 local time (around 11:06 Beijing time) on July 1st, Japan's new H3 rocket, Unit 3, launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, with the Earth observation satellite Daichi 4 on board.

The rocket was originally scheduled to launch on June 30th but was postponed to July 1st due to weather conditions.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have jointly developed the new-generation H3 rocket since 2014, hoping that this rocket with stronger carrying capacity and lower cost can succeed the active H2A rocket.

The H3 launch vehicle has a maximum diameter of 5.2 meters, a payload capacity of more than 4 tons in the Sun-synchronous Orbit (SSO), a payload capacity of 6.5 tons in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), and can deliver a payload of 8.8 tons to the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The payload is about 30% larger than that of the H2A, but the launch cost is only about half of it, which is about 5 billion yen (TapTechNews note: currently about 227 million RMB).

The largest configuration of the H3 rocket (H3-24L) is 63 meters high (excluding the payload), and the takeoff mass is 575 tons. It uses solid boosters, and the first and second stages use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engines. The design goal is to increase the payload capacity and reduce the launch cost compared to the H-2A and is Japan's future main rocket.

The H3 rocket was first launched in March 2023, but failed and was destroyed due to the failure of the secondary booster to ignite; Unit 2 has been successfully tested this February.