OUCH! The Japanese Space industry takes a big hit(they are very real potential competitors to Loral):
Tokyo - February 22, 1998 - National Space Development Agency of Japan President Isao Uchida expressed "shock, deep disappointment and sincere apologies" at a press conference at Tanegashima Space Center almost exactly three hours after a second stage engine failure on the H2 rocket wrecked Japan's latest satellite launch.
The 6th launch of the H2 began perfectly as the first stage burn hoisted the 3.9 ton 44.2 billion yen Communications and Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite (COMETS) through storm clouds into a 171 km orbit. The second stage LE-5A engine then fired correctly 6 minutes after launch with a 5 minute burn which raised the propelled the satellite into a 249 km orbit and coasting speed of 7.3 km/s.
However failure occurred 23 minutes into the mission during the apogee raising second stage refire cut out 44 seconds into a planned 3 minute 12 second burn, stranding COMETS in an elliptic orbit with an apogee of 1,900 kilometers.
"Getting to geostationary orbit is now impossible," Hiromi Hayashi, Associate Senior Vice President of NEC told Japan Space Net.
NASDA will attempt to raise the satellite to as high an orbit as possible using COMETS apogee raising maneuvers, but as of Saturday night it was too early to tell what sort of orbit was attainable, according to NASDA's Eiji Sogame, director of the satellite development division.
The second stage failure was a shocking event and both the Science and Technology Agency would seek to investigate the cause of the failure as soon as possible, STA minister Sarakazu Tanigaki told journalists. Tanigaki said that a special emergency meeting of the Space Activities Commission would be convened Sunday to begin what is likely to be a massive investigation into the cause of the failure.
Sogame said that the cause was completely unknown, partly due to lack of telemetry data. Unluckily tracking and control systems had switched from NASDA to a tracking station on Christmas Island just before the failure. However, according to data so far analysed, both the engine appeared to be burning normal right up until the cut off. Sogame refused to speculate on what the cause might be. Early speculation could indicate some sort of electrical subsystem failure, but Sogame refused to confirm this. A very tired and strained looking Uchida admitted that the failure had came as a great shock, especially given the H2's and Japan's vaunted launch vehicle reliability. Uchida promised a full, thorough and speedy investigation. Uchida refused to speculate on the short and longer-term impact of the failure, which one NASDA official only half-jokingly characterized as "a disaster."
In the short-term NASDA will not say whether the failure will delay the launches of MT-SAT and Adeos-2 due next August and possibly next December. However the failure is almost certain to have some impact on both launches if, as looks probable, NASDA will have to recheck LE-5A and LE-5B designs.
In the immediate future, COMETS failure will certainly impact on the troubled ETS-7 mission, which will now be forced to use a NASA TDRS communications satellite. Sogame confirmed that payment for TDRS use will now be taken from COMETS' insurance. COMETS has been insured by a consortium of some 20 companies lead by Tokyo Fire for 1 billion yen ($8 million).
Takashi Endo of NASDA's publicity department said that the disaster would not impact on Adeos-2's mission as the satellite could find alternative communications link satellites to conduct its earth observation duties.
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