AFTER China鈥檚 success in sending a man into orbit in October, Japan badly needed its jinxed heavy-lifting vehicle to fly like a dream on its next launch. It didn鈥檛.
The H-2A rocket, carrying two spy satellites, was blown up by ground control just 10 minutes into the flight last Saturday. A pair of spent solid rocket boosters failed to disengage from the craft, making it too heavy to reach orbit, so controllers had no choice but to destroy it 400 kilometres above the Pacific.
Coming after botched launches of the H-2A in 1998 and 1999, the latest failure has left Japan鈥檚 space programme in deep trouble. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e had too many failures of this rocket,鈥� says John Logsdon of the Space Policy Institute in Washington DC. The latest failure will 鈥渕ost certainly affect the perception of Japanese capabilities鈥�, he says.
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The loss will be investigated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which was created in October by merging Japan鈥檚 three separate 鈥� and often competing 鈥� space agencies. The merger was in part aimed at improving launch reliability.