On Monday, space authorities had to explode a 24-billion-yen (229-million-dollar) H-2 rocket and satellite when the rocket's main engine failed, pushing it off course after liftoff.

"Until we find out what caused the failure, we will have to postpone experimenting the next-generation rocket that uses almost identical engines to the H-2 rocket," said a National Space Development Agency (NASDA) official.

The government has launched a special investigation headquarters to look into the cause of the accident.

The failure, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, was likely caused by liquid hydrogen fuel leaking from cracked pipes in the booster stage of the H-2 rocket.

NASDA originally planned to launch a next-generation H-2-A rocket early next year, but because of the Monday's disaster it would put off the plan "for the time being," the NASDA official told AFP.

The explosion was the second successive failure in the costly H-2 rocket project after a 36-million-dollar satellite was lost in space despite a successful separation from the rocket in February 1998.

The latest launch was the seventh blast-off since 1994 of the Japanese H-2 rocket, supposed to be a fully-Japanese built rival to the successful European Ariane-4.

A delay in the H2A program will impact launch of the second Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-II) that replaces the on-orbit failed ADEOS-1. Onboard will also be the Whale Ecology Observation Satellite System (WEOSS) that Japan will use to help justify it's unpopular whaling operations that pretend to be science research but which actually little more than a sop to the ruling party's rural constituency.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
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