Japan's H-2A Rocket Launched First Commercial Satellite
Crowds of spectators and well-wishers in Tanegashima witnessed an H-2A rocket lifting off, 3:50 pm November 24 successfully putting into orbit a Canadian satellite at about 8:17. It was the first commercial satellite ever launched by a Japanese-built rocket.
The satellite launched today is Telesat Holdings Inc.'s broadcast and communications satellite named Telstar 12 Vantage.
The satellite launching business was transferred from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2007. Japan had been way behind Europe and Russia and the successful liftoff this time marked Japan's one big step forward.
So far Mitsubishi launched a satellite for the South Korean government in 2012 but not for commercial purpose. An improved model #29 was used this time with a second-stage engine injecting three times to stretch flight 4 hours longer nearly to the Earth's geostationary orbit.
The H-2A rocket assigned this time is a passing bridge to the next-generation rocket H3 (tentative) now under development. H3 is expected to be 1.5 times more powerful in launching capacity and a half less in building cost. A Mitsubishi spokesman comments Japan should be able to advance further into the satellite launching business by "steadily gaining overseas experience in launching foreign satellites this way".
Mitsubishi won an order in March from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for an earth observation satellite.
Right now, Europe's Ariane 5 and Russia's Proton dominate the world rocket launching market and Japan has only a single launch to its credit. With the arrival of H3 in 2020, however, Japan should have a fair chance of joining the battle.
Meanwhile, Europe is just as keen on throwing upgrades in about the time H3 debuts. Arianespace reportedly has Arian 6 ready with a launching capacity of 10.5 tons - slight over that of H3. CEO & Chairman Stéphane Israël said in April when he visited Japan:
"Competition is fierce but we will survive however fierce."