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Japan to launch/debut new rocket on the 7th March.

It will be the second attempt to debut the H3-22S

H3 Rocket at Tanegashima Space Center

The first launch of the Japanese H3 rocket (H3-22S n° TF1 “Test Flight No.1”) with an ALOS-3 optical remote sensing satellite was postponed to March 7, 2023, in the window between 10:37:55 and 10:44:15 JST or 01:37:55 to 01:44:15 UTC, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) on Sunday: "The launch of Japan's new H3 heavy-class launch vehicle at the Tanegashima Space Center in southwest Kagoshima Prefecture has been postponed from March 6 to March 7." This was announced on Saturday, the 5th, by the agency. The flight is planned to take place from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture in the southwest of the country. It should place the satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 669 km.


The launch, originally scheduled for February 17, was aborted due to a failure associated with a loss of signal between the battery and the main engine control unit. The 574-tonne rocket was supposed to launch the ALOS-3 satellite, weighing about 3 tons, designed to monitor natural disasters, into orbit.

Launch Summary

The rocket's first launch attempt was canceled because the SRB-3 auxiliary booster activation signal was not issued. Development manager and project leader Masafumi Okada said that although