Fifteen months after Japan's last liftoff ended in a spectacular fireball, an orange and white H-2A rocket blasted off yesterday on a mission officials hope will revive this country's once-proud space program -- now languishing in China's shadow.
The 53m tall rocket, with the word "Nippon," or Japan, emblazoned on its side, lifted off into a cloudy sky just before sunset from the sprawling space center on this remote southern island.
PHOTO: AP
The rocket carried a multipurpose weather and navigation satellite.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, was counting on a successful launch to help revive the reputation of the H-2A, which serves as the centerpiece of this country's space program, and to demonstrate that Japan remains a viable contender in an increasingly heated space race with China.
All H-2A launches had been put on hold following a humiliating failure minutes after liftoff from the main pad here in November 2003. Controllers had to detonate that rocket and its payload of two spy satellites in midair after a booster failed to detach.
The setback was all the more frustrating because it came just one month after China successfully launched its first astronaut into orbit. Beijing has since announced it is aiming for the moon.
Japan -- which in 1972 became the fourth country to launch a satellite and which has long seen itself as Asia's leading spacefaring nation -- has no manned space program of its own. Aware of the Chinese challenge, a government panel last year recommended that Japan begin studying the possibility of sending astronauts into space.
In the meantime, officials have stressed that the H-2A, which was designed and built in Japan, has a relatively good -- if not perfect -- record.
The 2003 failure came after five-straight successes, giving it an 83 percent success rate. Europe's Arianne V and China's Long March III both have about an 85 percent rate.
Even so, Japanese hopes that the H-2A would become an attractive competitor in the commercial launching business have yet to pan out because of the rocket's high cost and infrequent liftoffs.
JAXA officials stress that because Japan's space program, which has a budget of about ?260 billion (US$2.5 billion), is strictly non-military, it can afford only one or two launches a year.
They say that is the main reason why Japan -- despite being Asia's richest and most technologically advanced nation -- is falling behind China.
But the nature of Japan's space program is changing.
The perceived threat from communist neighbor North Korea, which launched a Taepodong 1 missile over Japan's main island in 1998, has provided a strong impetus for Tokyo to beef up its space capabilities.
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