JAXA’s H-IIA with IGS Radar 5 delayed by 1 day
Archive photo of an H-IIA rocket. Photo Credit: JAXA
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has delayed the launch of its H-IIA rocket with the Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) Radar 5 reconnaissance satellite by one day due to weather. Liftoff is now targeted for 9:20 p.m. EDT March 16 (01:20 GMT March 17), 2017.
According to the Japanese space agency, the weather was expected to deteriorate in advance of the original 9 p.m. EDT March 15 (01:20 GMT March 16) launch attempt. Within the next day, JAXA will evaluate the weather for the new launch attempt.
The 174-foot (53-meter) tall rocket will launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. While not much is known about the IGS Radar 5 payload, based on its predecessors it will be sent into a Sun-synchronous orbit inclined roughly 97 degrees to the equator in a nearly circular 310-miles (500-kilometer) orbit.
H-IIA is JAXA’s workhorse rocket. Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, it will fly in the 202 configuration, which includes two stages, no liquid-fueled boosters, and two solid-fueled boosters. The vehicle can send about 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) into SSO.
When it launches, this will be the country’s third orbital launch attempt in 2017, the second from an H-IIA.
Derek Richardson
Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a website about human spaceflight called Orbital Velocity.
