Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, March 18th Summary: Japan’s aerospace industry frequently suffers setbacks, experts reflect on R&D system issues
Xinhua News Agency reporter Qian Zheng
Japan’s new generation of main launch vehicle H3 failed in its first launch, the first moon landing mission failed, and the launch of the small rocket “Epsilon” failed… In the past less than half a year, Japan’s aerospace industry has suffered repeated failures. Experts and the media believe that the successive failures are a manifestation of the decline in Japan’s aerospace technology capabilities, and the root cause is the lack of a leading organization that can coordinate the overall situation in the research and development system.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released a report on the 16th saying that before the secondary engine of the country’s first H3 launch vehicle launched on the 7th of this month was ignited, an electric current overload occurred inside the rocket, which may have caused the launch failure. When the rocket tried to launch for the first time on February 17, it also failed to ignite following the end of the launch countdown due to an abnormal power supply system. At that time, JAXA announced that the launch was “aborted”.
The H3 rocket was jointly developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at a cost of more than 200 billion yen (1 US dollar equals 132 yen). As the successor model of the main carrier rocket H2A in active service, H3 is expected to serve as the main rocket of Japan’s space launch in the next 20 years. The failure of the first show will seriously affect Japan’s space program and its participation in the international commercial satellite launch competition.
Japan originally hoped to launch the H3 rocket for the first time in 2020. Later, due to some technical problems with the newly developed LE-9 main engine, the launch plan had to be postponed significantly. What ultimately led to the failure of the launch was the failure of the rocket’s secondary engine to ignite successfully. The second-stage engine of the H3 rocket is an improved version of the LE-5B engine used in the second stage of the H2A rocket.
The editorial of “Nihon Keizai Shimbun” pointed out that although spaceflight is always accompanied by failure, the secondary engine of the H3 rocket is almost the same as that of the H2A, and has gone through a long period of verification. If it was indeed the technology that caused the failure, the problem is serious. Coupled with the failure of the small solid-fuel rocket “Epsilon” to launch in October 2022, and the failure of Japan’s first lunar landing probe “Hoker” to establish communication with the ground following launching in November 2022, the moon landing failed,” In the field of aerospace, the decline of Japan’s technological capabilities is a cause for concern.”
Japan’s aerospace projects have always been undertaken by JAXA. The previous series of rockets were designed and developed by JAXA, and then placed orders with enterprises for production. It usually takes several successful launches, and then the technology is handed over to the enterprise when the technology is mature, and the enterprise will implement the commercial launch.
As a national research and development corporation, JAXA pays more attention to the advancement of technology, so the cost of the rocket it develops is likely to be high. The H2A rocket has been launched 46 times so far, and it has only failed once, with a success rate of regarding 98%. However, the cost of launching an H2A rocket is as high as regarding 10 billion yen, which is almost twice the international launch market. The market is uncompetitive, and only 5 commercial launch missions have been carried out so far. Therefore, the biggest goal of Japan’s research and development of the H3 rocket is to reduce the cost by half and become a “sellable” rocket in the commercial launch market.
The key to cutting costs is the rocket’s main engine, the LE-9. This low-cost, high-performance expansion cycle hydrogen-oxygen engine has been in constant trouble during the development process, causing the overall development of the rocket to be two years behind schedule, causing dissatisfaction and criticism from all walks of life.
After the first launch attempt of the H3 rocket was “aborted” due to a technical failure on February 17, it is obviously time-consuming to find out the cause and research countermeasures, but JAXA has announced several times at the press conference that it will launch the rocket during the window period of March 10. Launch once more before the end. Analysts believe that this is because JAXA is trying to avoid delaying until the next year starting from April 1, and this anxiety may also be one of the reasons for the failure.
However, some experts pointed out that the root cause of the launch failure is that the research and development system is not smooth, and there is a lack of a leading organization that can coordinate the overall situation, bridge differences, and break the isolation of various organizations.
In order to create a more commercial rocket, the H3 rocket was jointly undertaken by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries from the beginning of design and development. But the identities of the two sides are different, and the pursuit and understanding of technology are also different. In an interview with Kyodo News, the honorary president of Datong University in Japan, Akira Sawaoka, said that during the development of the H3 rocket, the barriers between such organizations might not be broken, and it felt like they were rushed together.
Zeoka Akira said that there are also problems in the government system. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is in charge of research and development. At the same time, there is a space development strategy headquarters headed by the prime minister, and its members come from multiple central government departments. The thinking of various government departments is also obviously different. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology focuses on technology itself, while the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has a strong sense of industrialization and costs. This extremely complex organizational structure is Japan’s weakness.
He said that if the failure of the H3 rocket is only solved superficially, the same mistakes may be repeated in the future, and fundamental system reforms should be initiated.
