The Japanese aerospace agency JAXA successfully launched the new H3 rocket this Saturday, after several delays and the failure of the inaugural flight in early 2023.
The main objective of this second launch of the rocket, which is expected to replace JAXA’s current H2, was to test the ignition of the second stage engine to place the rocket into Earth orbit.
The success of the operation was confirmed approximately 18 minutes later, in the control room. The H3 took off from the Tanegashima Space Center, an island south of Kagoshima (southwest), at 09:22 (00:22 on Friday in Lisbon), in a launch broadcast live on the social network YouTube.
The first H3 was launched in March 2023, but the second stage engine failed to ignite and JAXA ordered the device to self-destruct in flight, in a failure that hit the Japanese aerospace industry hard.
JAXA indicated that it should provide more information about the development of the reentry phase and other details of the operation at a press conference and on the agency’s social networks.
Source: https://observador.pt/2024/02/17/japao-lanca-com-exito-novo-foguetao-h3/
