Japan's JAXA to Launch New H3 Rocket with Kirameki 3 Satellite in October

TapTechNews August 27th news, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced today that it will launch the domestic new-type H3 rocket No. 4 from the Tanegashima Space Center in October, carrying its X-band national defense communication satellite Kirameki (meaning sparkling) No. 3.

The scheduled launch time is from 3:42 pm to 5:30 pm local time (14:43~16:30 Beijing time). If it cannot be launched on that day, the next launch window will be from October 21st to November 30th.

TapTechNews note: 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 replace the current H2A rocket.

The H3 rocket was first launched in March 2023, but failed and was destroyed due to the failure of the second-stage booster to ignite; the No. 2 machine has completed the test launch in February this year; and the No. 3 machine was successfully launched on July 1st this year.

According to public information, Kirameki-1 (Superbird-B3, DSN-1) was launched on board the Ariane 5 rocket on April 6, 2018, and Kirameki-2 (DSN-2) was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on board the H-IIA rocket on January 24, 2017.