- Also, you can follow Teddy Fresh's Twitter. The Official H3 Podcast Twitter (Link): The podcast's twitter will be primarily used for alerts, schedules and cancellations of the H3 Podcast. Disclaimer: This wiki page is maintained by moderators and community members.
- A hotfire test of the LE-9 first-stage engine for the H3 rocket performed early this year. 11 that a problem with the engine would push the rocket's first launch back to at least.
The latest tweets from @H3haz. A vehicle accident closed the left lanes of both directions on the H3 Freeway Wednesday morning between Likelike Hwy on/off ramps and the Hospital Rock Tunnel. Delays are expected to impact traffic.
HELSINKI — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is moving ahead with testing of its new H3 rocket as it seeks to replace its aging flagship H-IIA launch vehicle.
The first stage of the 5.2-meter-diameter H3 launcher was unveiled to press at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Tobishima plant in Aichi Prefecture Jan. 24.
The core stage is being transported to Tanegashima Space center for a series of tests beginning in February as part of preparations for eventual launch.
Comprehensive system tests and vital certification tests of the LE-9 liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engines—issues with which have brought delays— will be conducted at the launch site, JAXA told SpaceNews in an email.
A wet dress rehearsal is planned for March, when the launcher will be loaded with cryogenic propellant, simulating the work leading up to a launch. JAXA will then carry out various tests until launch according to an appropriate schedule.
JAXA says the launch date of the first H3 will be “decided after coordination with the development status of the onboard satellite and related organizations.”
https://twitter.com/MHI_GroupJP/status/1352903907958267904
JAXA last fall announced the H3 had slipped from Japanese Financial Year 2020 to 2021, the latter of which begins April 1 of 2021. The delay is due to problems discovered with the new LE-9 engine’s combustion chamber and turbopump.
JAXA is now working on LE-9 certification having found fatigue fracture surfaces in the combustion chamber and turbopump blades. “We have been conducting technical data acquisition tests and turbo pump blade vibration tests as the previous stage in Tanegashima and Kakuda since last year. We will continue this effort,” JAXA stated.
H3 is intended to fully replace the older, active H-IIA rocket after 2023. It is stated to be designed for high flexibility, high reliability, and high cost performance.
Four configurations of the H3 are to be possible, each featuring two or three LE-9 engines and optional solid side boosters. The largest, 63-meter-long, 574-ton configuration is to be capable of lifting more than 7,900 kilograms to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Upgraded variants may be introduced in the future for lunar missions.
“For the H3 rocket, we are aiming for a price of about 5 billion yen ($48.2 million) for the minimum configuration type,” JAXA confirms. The minimum configuration refers to the H3-30 type, without the SRB-3 solid rocket boosters, at the regular operation stage. “This is about half the price of the current H-IIA rocket.”
A cosmetic change is also coming with H3, dropping the “NIPPON” seen on the side of the current H-II rockets. “One of the purposes of developing the H3 rocket is to improve international competitiveness. We adopted the notation “JAPAN” from the perspective of global appeal,” JAXA said.
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WASHINGTON — The Japanese space agency JAXA announced Sept. 11 that the first launch of the country’s new H3 rocket will be delayed to no earlier than the spring of 2021 because of problems with the rocket’s main engine.
JAXA said that the first flight of the rocket is now scheduled for some time in Japanese fiscal year 2021, which begins April 1 of 2021. The second launch of the rocket has also slipped, to Japanese fiscal year 2022.
JAXA said that engineers had encountered a technical problem with the LE-9 engine used in the rocket’s first stage. The statement did not elaborate in the problem. That engine, which uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants, performed hotfire tests early this year.
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“JAXA will deal with the LE-9 engine-related problem in an appropriate manner and make an all-out effort for the successful launch of the H3,” the agency said.
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JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the prime contractor for the H3, has previously targeted an inaugural launch of the rocket by the end of 2020. Ko Ogasawara, MHI vice president and general manager for space systems, affirmed that schedule in March at the Satellite 2020 conference, with the ALOS-3 Earth science satellite as the payload for that mission.
The H3 will succeed the existing H-2A and H-2B rockets, which have been the mainstay of Japan’s space program for nearly two decades. The H3 is designed to be significantly less expensive than the H-2, making it more competitive on the global commercial launch market.
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