Japanese Rocket Launches Its First Commercial Satellite

schwit1 writes: Using its H-IIA rocket, upgraded to lower cost, Japan launched its first commercial payload today, putting Canada's Telestar 12V into geosynchronous orbit. UPI reports: "Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency said the H-IIA rocket was upgraded for the launch, permitting the satellite to stay closer to its geostationary orbit. Tokyo's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said he hoped the launch would exhibit the quality of Japan's rocket engineering, and that the successful launch would result in more orders from other global corporations. Following the launch, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries vice president Naohiko Abe said the firm plans to actively promote the H-IIA for satellite launches."

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

Whats more surprising is that India has been doing it for years now .

Re:

[AHuxley]

Lots of US trade issues held back Japan. The US did not want other nations offering cheaper or better platforms so a few political and treaty obligations now face a lot of nations wanting to sell or expand on their own industrial base into the space market.
Missile Technology Control Regime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
"Japan's space development" and USA trade policy, "Section 301" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
India just went its own way and made sure it could design, build and launch any syste

Re:

[Crowd Computing]

Not just trade issues. Japan and Germany were both held back from developing independent launch capabilities as punishment for being the World War 2 aggressors. US and Russian space development were bootstrapped on top of German hardware or know-how.

This is common knowledge by the way. Way back in the 60s, Philip K Dick speculated on what might have happened if Japan and Germany had won in The Man in the High Castle, now showing, for those too lazy to read, on the nearest Amazon cinema. In the novel, the G

Not Trade but Arms Control and Nonproliferation

[Koreantoast]

Trade is an issue, but it was definitely focused on nuclear nonproliferation. Given the very direct link between rockets to deliver satellites into orbit and rockets to deliver nuclear warheads, there was interest among many nations, especially as the Cold War winded down, to ensure these sorts of arms races never developed. Japan, having been on the receiving end of a nuclear weapon, had strong reasons to promote nuclear nonproliferation. At that time as well, there were hopes that with Japan signing onto

Re:Very surprised...

[rubycodez]

Title is misleading, Japan has been launching satellites since the 1970s, making commercial satellites since the 1980s. Just not launching commercial satellites itself

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[AmiMoJo]

Japan is the 4th country to put an object in orbit, and the 5th to put an object in space.

1. Germany (did not reach orbit)
2. USSR
3. USA
4. France
5. Japan

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[rubycodez]

that was the 6th country (in October 1971) to put object in orbit after USSR (1957), USA(1958), France(1965), Japan(february 1970), china (april 1970)

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[rubycodez]

the Nazi German program did indeed put satellites into space, it just relocated to the southern USA first

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[hcs_$reboot]

Me, not [nytimes.com] so [washingtonpost.com] much [wsj.com].

News?

[quenda]

Good for the rocket. Are we expecting it to go back up and launch a second satellite?

upgraded to lower cost

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> upgraded to lower cost

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Surprise! Surprise!

[turkeydance]

it dumped fuel over the USA. link: http://www.spaceweather.com/ [spaceweather.com]

Re:

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

You guys are never happy.

Your government goes to war in the middle east to secure more oil, you complain.
A friendly nation gives you free fuel, you complain again!

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[matfud]

That LOX and LH2 are really nasty when dumped into our atmosphere /sarcasm

Will someone please "upgrade" the eds.?

[Bearhouse]

Please could someone explain what "upgraded to lower cost" mean?
As for "upgraded for the launch"...what? Could it not lauch prior to the upgrade?
The linked article makes no referenece to either.

Much better information here:

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com... [nasaspaceflight.com]

And even here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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[ColdWetDog]

Engrish [engrish.com]