Japan’s new medium-lift rocket failed while on its debut flight in space on Tuesday. Japan’s first new model in three decades, the 57-metre tall H3 rocket, flew from the Tanegashima space port in a live-streamed broadcast posted on social media by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The Live stream of the first H3 Launch Vehicle (#H3 TF1) with Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3) onboard has just started now. “The H3 is extremely important to ensure our access to space and to ensure we are competitive,” JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa told reporters. H3 builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries estimated that the H3’s cost per launch will be half that of its predecessor, the H-II, helping it win business in a global launch market increasingly dominated by SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket.

Source: CNN March 07, 2023 15:34 UTC