Tokyo, 04 September, /AJMEDIA/
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said on Monday it planned to launch its H-IIA rocket carrying a moon lander on Thursday morning, after unfavorable wind conditions led to a postponement last month.
The rocket is scheduled to take off from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan at 8:42 a.m., with a launch window open until Sept 15, the company said.
The new schedule was announced a week after the previous launch attempt, which would have carried Japan’s first spacecraft to land on the moon, was suspended because of high winds.
H-IIA, jointly developed by JAXA and MHI, has been Japan’s flagship space launch vehicle, with 45 successful launches in 46 tries since 2001. After JAXA’s new medium-lift H3rocket failed on its debut in March, the agency postponed the launch of H-IIA No. 47 for several months to investigate the cause.
Hoping to help accelerate Japan’s aerospace development initiatives, Japan may subsidize JAXA with about 10 billion yen in fiscal 2024, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Monday.
JAXA will use this subsidy to pay companies and universities involved in the development of satellites, rockets, and lunar-exploration technologies, the report said.
