H3 lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center.
SINGAPORE–The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) new H3 rocket failed March 7 after a successful initial liftoff, destroying the H3 and the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 “Daichi-3” that it was carrying.
JAXA said it transmitted the destruct command from the Tanegashima Space Center after it could not confirm the ignition of the rocket’s second-stage engine.
H3 lifted off from Tanegashima at 10:37 a.m. Japan time or 8:37 p.m. March 6 Eastern time. The second-stage engine was to ignite at T+6 min. But the range control center failed to receive a confirmation from the rocket. The second stage is powered by a single LE-5B-3 engine, an improved variant of the LE-5 series used on the H-2 rockets.
The failure was the second attempt to put the H3 into space. A launch attempt was scrubbed on Feb. 17.
JAXA said the SRB-03 booster did not ignite after an electrical anomaly was detected. A safety mechanism then halted the booster’s ignition and began a shutdown of the LE-9 first stage engine.
Under normal circumstances, LE-9 is ignited at T-6.3 sec. and the booster at T-0.4 sec.
JAXA said the first-stage flight controller malfunctioned due to transient fluctuations in the communication and power lines that occurred during electrical separation between the rocket and the ground facilities.
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