{"id":11084,"date":"2023-01-26T20:56:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T12:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/h-2a-rocket-launches-japanese-radar-spy-satellite\/"},"modified":"2023-01-26T20:56:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T12:56:38","slug":"h-2a-rocket-launches-japanese-radar-spy-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/h-2a-rocket-launches-japanese-radar-spy-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"H-2A rocket launches Japanese radar spy satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Japanese H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on Jan. 26 (local time) with a radar spy satellite. Credit: MHI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Japan launched a government spacecraft Jan. 25 on an H-2A rocket, adding a new radar platform to the country\u2019s spy satellite fleet for all-weather, day-and-night surveillance.<\/p>\n

The radar spy satellite launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on Japan\u2019s first space mission of the year. The 174-foot-tall (53-meter) H-2A rocket lifted off from Launch Pad No. 1 at Tanegashima, a launch base carved into a rocky oceanfront outcrop on an island off Japan\u2019s southwestern coast.<\/p>\n

The launch occurred at 8:50:21 p.m. EST on Jan. 25 (0150:21 GMT on Jan. 26), with the H-2A rocket\u2019s hydrogen-fueled main engine and twin solid rocket boosters producing 1.4 million pounds of thrust. The launch time was 10:50 a.m. local time in Japan.<\/p>\n

The H-2A rocket headed south from Tanegashima over the Pacific Ocean, targeting a polar orbit at an altitude of roughly 300 miles (500 kilometers).<\/p>\n

The strap-on boosters burned out less than two minutes after liftoff and jettisoned, and the H-2A\u2019s payload fairing jettisoned around four minutes into the mission. The first stage main engine switched off approximately six-and-a-half minutes after launch, then the first stage separated to fall into the Pacific. The upper stage\u2019s LE-5B engine, burning a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, ignited to place Japan\u2019s newest surveillance satellite into polar orbit.<\/p>\n

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the H-2A rocket\u2019s prime contractor, confirmed in a statement that the Information Gathering Satellite deployed as planned from the H-2A\u2019s upper stage. MHI announced the satellite separation about 18 minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n

The launch marked the 46th flight of an H-2A rocket since the Japanese launcher debuted in 2001.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s space agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the H-2A rocket\u2019s prime contractor, did not provide a live webcast of Tuesday\u2019s launch. Japanese launch officials typically provide live video coverage of space launches, but not for missions carrying the country\u2019s spy satellites.<\/p>\n

The satellite launched Jan. 25, named IGS Radar 7, carries a synthetic aperture radar imaging payload capable of resolving objects on the ground day and night, regardless of weather conditions.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft\u2019s specifications, including its imaging performance, are kept secret by the Japanese government. But the government has acknowledged the satellite will join a fleet of Information Gathering Satellites operated by the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center, which reports directly to the Japanese government\u2019s executive leadership.<\/p>\n

The IGS Radar 7 satellite is Japan\u2019s eighth radar reconnaissance satellite. The radar observers operate in tandem with electro-optical surveillance satellites, which offer better resolution, but only when their imaging targets have clear skies overhead.<\/p>\n

Japan started its spy satellite program in 1998 after a North Korean missile test flew over Japanese territory.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Japanese H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on Jan. 26 (local time) with a radar spy satellite. Credit: MHI Japan launched a government spacecraft Jan. 25 on an H-2A rocket, adding a new radar platform to the country\u2019s spy satellite fleet for all-weather, day-and-night surveillance. The radar spy satellite launched from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}