Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3)

2023: Self-destruct after launch

On March 7, 2023, the N3 launch vehicle was unable to launch an Earth remote sensing satellite into orbit, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.

The launch was carried out at 04:37 Moscow time from the Tanegashima cosmodrome in Kagoshima Prefecture in the south-west of the country. The rocket was supposed to launch an optical satellite for remote sensing of the ALOS-3 Earth into a solar-synchronous orbit. According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the second stage engine did not turn on and a self-destruction signal was transmitted to the rocket, the space agency said in a statement. The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan Keiko Nagaoka said that the Japanese authorities will create a headquarters to investigate the failure of the space mission.

The H3 was developed by Japanese space agency JAXA as a competitor to the SpaceX Falcon. This rocket with an updated engine was to be used to launch Japanese state and commercial satellites and to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and the future lunar station Gateway.

This is the second unsuccessful attempt to launch a N3 rocket in 2023. As reported by JAXA, the first attempt was on February 17, 2023, the start was canceled a few seconds before the start due to the failure of the engines of the side accelerators of the first stage. The main engine was started normally, but the side accelerators in the N3 did not work.

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3) satellite was planned to be used for continuous observation of the earth's surface in order to prevent natural disasters, monitor the state of the environment and coastal areas. The life of the device weighing about 3 tons was designed for seven years. ALOS-3 developed by the Japanese corporation Mitsubishi Electric, it was equipped with a color camera with ultra-high resolution up to 80 cm. The device was supposed to perform tasks along with the ALOS-2 satellite, launched in 2014.^[1]

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