Japan Launches Navigation Satellite on H3 Rocket

The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H3 is Japan's flagship rocket, and available in several configurations.  This morning at 3:30 AM EST or 0830 UTC, an H3 was launched from Tanegashima Space Center. 

Aboard was the 1,900-kilogram Michibiki 6 satellite, also known as the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS-6), for Japan’s navigation satellite system. The system aims to provide Japan with positioning, navigation and timing services, while increasing the accuracy and reliability of GPS services in the region. 

The first Michibiki spacecraft for a four-satellite system was launched in 2010.  Since that time, an 11-satellite system, to provide redundancy, is being considered, according to a 2024 policy document from the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. 

You might recall that the H3 had a failure on its first flight in March of 2023 - due to a failure in the upper stage; leading ground controllers to issue a destruct command to destroy the stage and its ALOS-3 payload. It was over a year, July of '24, before they had a successful H3 launch, and they've had two more successes since then. This is vehicle number five.

The 63-meter-long H3 comes in configurations with no solid rocket boosters, two SRBs or four SRBs for higher payload needs. The latter pair of configurations can also utilize an elongated payload fairing. 
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The expendable rocket was designed to be more cost-effective and therefore competitive on the international commercial launch market.

The H3 received a boost last year with the announcements that the H3 will launch an asteroid mission for the United Arab Emirates, currently scheduled for 2028, while Eutelsat signed a contract to use multiple H3 rockets from 2027.

This morning's launch from Tanegashima Space Center. Photo from The Mainichi (Image credit: Kyodo)  Studying the vehicle as best as I can, it looks like an SRB is facing the camera and in line with the booster's body, which makes this the two SRB version.  Watching the Japanese launch video confirms that.

This was Japan's first launch of the year.  The moon-bound lunar lander Resilience from Japanese company ispace is still said to be in excellent health and en route to the moon, after taking a ride on a Falcon 9 back on Jan. 15.