Deployment of the spacecraft is scheduled about 28 minutes after liftoff.
Then the upper stage’s LE-5B engine will ignite for two maneuvers to inject the QZS 1R satellite into an elliptical transfer orbit stretching more than 22,000 miles (about 36,000 kilometers) above Earth. The core stage, covered in a blanket of orange insulating foam, will burn for about six-and-a-half minutes. Heading east after liftoff from Tanegashima, the rocket’s strap-on boosters will consume their propellant in about two minutes before jettisoning to fall into the Pacific Ocean. The H-2A rocket is fitted with two strap-on solid rocket boosters, providing the majority of the 1.4 million pounds of thrust to push the launcher off the pad.Ī cryogenic hydrogen-fueled LE-7A main engine powers the core stage, and another cryogenic engine - the LE-5B - is mounted to the rocket’s second stage. QZS 1R, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., weighs about 4 metric tons (4.4 tons) fully fueled on top of the H-2A rocket. Once at the launch pad, the rocket was connected to ground electrical and propellant systems, allowing the H-2A team to start loading liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the launcher’s first and second stage tanks. The 1,600-foot (500-meter) journey on a mobile launch table took about 30 minutes to complete. Japanese teams from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the H-2A’s prime contractor and operator, rolled the rocket from its assembly building to the launch pad around 15 hours before liftoff. The flight was delayed 24 hours because of a poor weather forecast for the mission’s first launch opportunity. Liftoff of the 174-foot-tall (53-meter) H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan is scheduled for a 15-minute window opening at 10:19:37 p.m. The QZS 1 satellite is beyond its original 10-year design life.
The new satellite will join Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, or QZSS, which helps give users better estimates of their position, especially in cities and remote regions, where skyscrapers, trees and mountains can block signals from GPS satellites.Ī Japanese H-2A rocket is set to deploy the new satellite, named QZS 1R or Michibiki 1R, to replace the first Michibiki spacecraft launched on a previous H-2A flight in September 2010. military’s GPS network to provide more precise positioning and timing services over the Asia-Pacific region. Japan is set to launch a replacement satellite Monday for a navigation spacecraft that has been in space since 2010, augmenting the U.S. A Japanese H-2A rocket rolls out to its launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center with the QZS 1R satellite.
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