Tim Furniss/LONDON
Japan's third H2 booster will be carrying the nation's pride and, if successful, will raise post-earthquake morale when it is launched from the Tanegashima space centre on 22 February. After the $575 million losses of the Engineering Test Satellite 6 (ETS) in orbit in August 1994 and the Express capsule in the Pacific Ocean on 15 January, Japan needs a boost (Flight International, 25-31 January).
The ETS, was a National Space Development Agency (NASDA) project, while the Express, was managed by the country's Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS). Coincidentally, the 22 February launch involves both these competitive agencies.
NASDA - which has a budget six times larger than that of ISAS - developed the H2 and its primary payload, the fifth Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS), while its other payload, the Space Flyer Unit (SFU), came from ISAS.
The $430 million SFU free-flying, retrievable platform will be placed in an orbit, which will provide excellent-quality microgravity conditions for experiments and give an opportunity to evaluate new technologies. These are seen as an important prelude to the operation of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), to be launched as part of the international Alpha Space Station in March 2000. The SFU will be retrieved during the Space Shuttle Endeavour/STS72 mission in November and four or more flights may follow.
BOOSTER SUCCESS
The SFU's H2 booster has been successful in its first two launches, the first of which was delayed for more than two years by development problems, particularly with the vehicle's LE7 cryogenic first-stage engine. The first wholly indigenous, large, liquid-propellant booster, the H2, is designed to be the workhorse of the Japanese space programme and is also being commercially marketed by the Mitsubishi-led Rocket Systems.
Its production costs, however, mean that its launch price - more than $150 million - is high compared with other commercial boosters. NASDA says that it is trying to reduce costs. The H2 has an added disadvantage of being restricted by the powerful Japanese fishing lobby to being launched only 45 days a year, between January and February and August and September to reduce disturbance over the Pacific fishing lanes. It also suffers from its northerly launch base, which reduces vehicle performance for equatorial geostationary orbit (GEO) missions. Six more H2 national launches are scheduled to 2000.
The third H2's primary payload, the GMS 5, is the latest in a series of spacecraft, which, since 1977, have played a role in the Global Observing System of the World Weather Watch. It is one of over 15 new spacecraft projects being developed by NASDA and ISAS, together with two new satellite launchers, the JEM and other associated terrestrial and space-based projects.
Japan's annual space budget for 1995-6 is expected to increase by about 8%, to $2.3 billion, placing it second only to the USA in expenditure. Russia's real funding is uncertain and its budget has been reduced severely since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Japan has visions of doubling its budget and of establishing manned Moon bases by 2020.
The country, which became the fourth to achieve satellite-launch capability in 1970, has sent over 50 science, interplanetary, Earth-observation, communications and technology-demonstration spacecraft into orbit. This includes two which were used to explore Halley's Comet in March 1986 (in an international mission including two Russian spacecraft and the European craft, the Giotto) and one which landed a small craft, the Hiten, on the Moon in April 1993, the first Moon mission from Earth since 1976.
THE FIRST ORBIT
The J1 will be able to carry 870kg into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Its first payload on its maiden flight from the old H1 pad at Tanegashima in February 1996 will be the Hyflex space plane. This could be a precursor to the proposed unmanned Hope space plane, which could be flying routine H2-boosted missions to service the Alpha space station after 2000.
The 4.4m-long, 1,040kg stubby Hyflex, will be used to evaluate the carbon-carbon-based thermal heat shield tiles and the aerodynamics of a winged vehicle returning from space. The Hyflex re-entry test follows that of the Orex "flying saucer", which was flown on the first H2 in February 1994.
Another related project is called Alflex. A small-scale version of the Hope space plane, this will be used for approach and landing tests after being dropped by a helicopter, possibly at the Woomera test range in South Australia, starting later this year. ISAS has begun initial work - including sub-scale glide tests - of the highly manoeuvrable experiment space vehicle, the HIMES, which could be launched if sufficient funds are forthcoming.
The National Aerospace Laboratory is also working on space plane-propulsion technologies, including air-breathing and scramjet engines, and has proposed a hypersonic-test aircraft.
Although not yet fully funded, the resulting re-useable, unmanned, Hope space plane could be developed in two versions. An initial 10t craft could be launched on an H2, as early as 1998, while the fully operational 20t model, would be launched on an up-rated H2, with four strap-on boosters. This could raise Alpha-servicing capacity from 1t to 3t. The Hope, is planned to be used as a technology demonstrator, for a potential 21st-century manned space shuttle.
Japan's second new launcher is the ISAS M5, which is to be the successor to the M3S2 and which will triple the LEO capacity to 2.2t and allow interplanetary flights of craft weighing up to 520kg. The M5 is to have its first flight from the ISAS Kagoshima space base in 1996, one year later than planned originally, will enable the ISAS to enlarge its horizons with launches of a Mars-observing orbiter, called Planet B, in 1998.
The Lunar A orbiter to be launched in 1997, will be used to fire three penetrators 1.3m into the lunar surface to make seismology and heat-flow readings. NASDA has proposed follow-on lunar orbiter-rover and Mars orbiter missions.
New projects on the ISAS agenda include a Venus orbiter and a return craft with comet samples aboard.
Preparing for work on the JEM aboard the Alpha station, Japan has already flown several experiments on the US Space Shuttle and on the Russian Mir 1 space station. A fully funded Space Shuttle Spacelab J mission, was flown in September 1992 and the country has featured on several other Shuttle missions. It has also flown two payload specialists on the Shuttle (a Japanese journalist flew on the Mir 1 in 1990). Two Japanese scientists, are mission specialists with NASA, one of whom has already been assigned a mission, to retrieve the SFU in November 1995.
The country also operates, or plans to operate, a fleet of publicly and privately owned communications satellites serving the lucrative national and Asia Pacific telecommunications market. Broadcasting Satellite System, Japanese Satellite Systems, Space Communications and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone are involved in the N Star, B-Sat, JC Sat and Superbird projects, which have been supported by NASDA's valuable communications and spacecraft technology work.
The spacecraft themselves, however, have been purchased from US manufacturers for US-Japanese trade-agreement reasons, because of the high cost of the H2, they will all be launched on Atlas and Ariane boosters.
Source: Flight International
