Japan’s powerful new rocket will have to wait a little longer before it can lift off the ground.
The H3 rocket aborted its first-ever launch attempt on Thursday evening (February 16), a test flight from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center intended to send an Earth observation satellite into orbit.
The H3 made it to the countdown to T-0, which took place as scheduled at 8:37 p.m. EST (0137 GMT and 10:37 a.m. Japan Standard Time on February 17). The two LE-9 engines powering the vehicle’s core stage fired, but one of its two solid rocket boosters failed to fire, commentators said during the launch’s livestream, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The rocket stayed on the ground and in one piece.
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It wasn’t immediately clear why the booster didn’t fire; More time is needed to investigate this, launch commentators said.
Thursday’s abort is adding to delays in the H3’s journey into orbit. JAXA and its trading partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing the missile for a decade.
JAXA has high hopes for the H3, which is designed to be flexible and cost-effective. The new vehicle will soon replace Japan’s workhorse H-IIA missile if all goes according to plan.
The satellite that should fly today is called Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3 (opens in new tab)), also known as DAICHI-3.
The 3-ton ALOS-3 will be able to resolve features just 2.6 feet (0.8 meters) wide on our planet’s surface from its last position in low Earth orbit, JAXA officials said. Its observations will have many applications, including disaster monitoring and response.
The scheduled launch on Thursday was originally scheduled for Tuesday (February 14), but bad weather caused a two-day delay.
Japan has launched one orbital mission so far this year: an H-IIA successfully launched the Japanese IGS Radar 7 surveillance satellite on Jan 25.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There (opens in new tab) (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaelwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).