Lunar Mission Delayed: Strong Winds Force Japan to Postpone H-IIA Rocket Launch

According to the launch’s operator, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Japan’s space agency canceled Monday’s launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying a moon lander.

24 minutes prior to the scheduled launch time, MHI’s launch services section posted on the social networking platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the launch was postponed due to inadequate wind conditions in the upper stratosphere.

On Monday at 9:26 a.m. local time (00:26 GMT), the H-IIA No. 47 rocket was scheduled to lift off from the southern Japanese Tanegashima Space Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

During its YouTube webcast, JAXA stated that MHI will release more information. The rocket is carrying JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), the nation’s first lunar landing mission.

The lunar lander Hakuto-R Mission 1 from Tokyo-based firm ispace failed in April.

After the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar exploration mission this month, JAXA planned to begin the SLIM moon landing in January or February 2024 following Monday’s launch.

Collaborative Space Mission

lunar-mission-delayed-strong-winds-force-japan-to-postpone-hiia-rocket-launch — According to the launch’s operator, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Japan’s space agency canceled Monday’s launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying a moon lander.

The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite, a collaboration between JAXA, NASA, and the European Space Agency, was also carried by the rocket. H-IIA, jointly built by JAXA and MHI, has been Japan’s premier space launch vehicle, with a success rate of 98% since 2001.

Nevertheless, after JAXA’s new medium-lift H3 rocket failed on its debut in March, the agency postponed the launch of H-IIA No. 47 for many months to study the cause.

The launch failure of the Epsilon small rocket in October 2022, followed by an engine explosion during a test this month, were only two of the latest setbacks for Japan’s space-related initiatives.

If the mission is successful, Japan will become the sixth nation in the world to successfully land a probe on the moon. The data the probe gathers will be used by the US-led Artemis program, which aims to send men to the moon.

India made a huge step forward on August 23 when the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully touched down in the South Pole region of the moon, making it the first nation to accomplish the historic feat and putting an end to the disappointment over the Chandrayaan-2 crash landing four years earlier.

Ultimately, India became the fourth nation to make a successful landing on the moon, following the US, China, and Russia.

Source: Yahoo!