Status: Active. First Launch: 2002-02-04. Last Launch: 2008-02-23. Number: 7 . Payload: 11,730 kg (25,860 lb). Thrust: 4,680.00 kN (1,052,100 lbf). Gross mass: 289,000 kg (637,000 lb). Height: 49.00 m (160.00 ft). Diameter: 4.00 m (13.10 ft). Apogee: 300 km (180 mi).
LEO Payload: 11,730 kg (25,860 lb) to a 300 km orbit at 30.40 degrees. Payload: 5,000 kg (11,000 lb) to a GTO. Development Cost $: 800.000 million. Launch Price $: 90.000 million in 1999 dollars in 1999 dollars.
Technology qualification flight - maiden flight of H-2A booster. Launch delayed from January 31 and February 3. The second stage began its first burn at 0251 UTC and at 0257 UTC entered a 500 km circular parking orbit. After a 12 minute coast the second burn put stage 2 in geostationary transfer orbit. At 0315 UTC the small DASH vehicle was meant to separate from the upper adapter, but this apparently did not occur. At 0325 UTC VEP-3/upper adapter/DASH combination separated from the second stage, followed by two semi-cylindrical side panels, revealing the previously enclosed MDS-1 technology satellite which was ejected at 0331 UTC. At 0425 UTC the second stage was scheduled to make a third burn to test engine restart, completing the H-2A-2F mission.
The VEP-3 launch instrumentation package mounted on top of the DASH had a mass of 33 kg. The side adapter panels were halves of a 4.1m long 4.0m diameter cylinder. DASH (Demonstrator of Atmospheric Reentry System and Hypervelocity) was to test the reentry system for the MUSES-C asteroid probe. The plan was to fire the deorbit motor three days after launch, then separate the reentry capsule which would enter the Earth's atmosphere at 10 km/s and land in the Hodh el Gharbi region of Mauritania at about 8.5W 17.2N. Typical satellite reentries are at only 7.5 km/s, while hyperbolic (escape) velocity at the top of the atmosphere is over 11 km/s, so DASH would have been travelling much faster than typical reentry vehicles, but not quite at escape velocity.
Launch delayed from August 2002. First operational flight of H-2A booster. USERS (Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System) was a Japanese microgravity experimental satellite. After 8.5 months in orbit, a reentry vehicle was to be returned to earth with the materials manufacturered in space.
Launch delayed from August 2002. First operational flight of H-2A booster. DRTS (Data Relay Transponder Satellite) was a Japanese geostationary communications spacecraft which was to relay images and data procured by the to-be-launched ADEOS 2 and ALOS satellites, and the KIBO module on ISS, after being parked over 90° E. However the engine failed after a couple of burns. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 90.76E drifting at 0.005W degrees per day.
Optical reconnaisance satellite. First Japanese military space mission. Dual payload. Delayed from February 2003. The Tanegashima facility was under strict security, guarded by 400 police officers wearing bullet-proof vests. Waters near the pad were patrolled by the coast guard.
Multifunctional Transport Satellite. An aeronautical payload provided communications relay between aircraft and air traffic control; GPS augmentation navigation for aircraft; and transmitted the location of aircraft to air traffic control. A Japan Advanced Meteorological Imager weather camera had one visible and four infrared channels. MTSAT-2 was built by Mitsubishi using the new DS2000 bus. As of 2007 Mar 8 located at 144.93E drifting at 0.016W degrees per day.
Optical-3 Verification Satellite, an experimental satellite on a six-month mission to test payloads planned for the Optical-3 second-generation Japanese military optical surveillance satellite. The production-type Optical-3 satellite was expected to launch in 2009.
WINDS, the Wide-band Internetworking Engineering Test and Demonstration Satellite, was designed to demonstrate delivery of high bandwidth Ka-band Internet service to remote areas of Japan and Southeast Asia from geostationary orbit at 143 deg E. Users with a small 45 cm in diameter antenna could receive data at up to 155 Mbps and transmit data at up to 6 Mbps.