Final Launch of Japan’s H2A Rocket Successful; Rocket Finished Career with 98% Success Rate

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:05 JST, June 29, 2025

Japan’s 50th and final H2A rocket successfully launched Sunday and separated from a government satellite that has been put into orbit to observe the Earth.

The rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at 1:33 a.m. The successful launch marked a triumphant finish for the rocket, which has supported Japan’s space development for more than two decades.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., which took charge of the launch, said the rocket successfully launched 44 consecutive times and marked a success rate of 98% since its first launch in 2001. Of the 50 launches, the sixth was the only one that failed in 2003. The success rate proves the rocket’s high technical prowess and reliability.

The H2A has carried several important satellites that support social infrastructure. Those include the geostationary meteorological satellite Himawari and the quasi-zenith satellite Michibiki, which is used to enhance positioning accuracy.

It has also carried explorers that made significant scientific achievements, such as Hayabusa2, which brought back samples collected from the surface of asteroid Ryugu, and the SLIM lander, which successfully touched down on the moon’s surface and made Japan the fifth country to land a craft on the moon.

The latest rocket carried the government’s GOSAT-GW satellite, whose mission includes measuring greenhouse gas levels and the water cycle. Nicknamed Ibuki GW, the satellite can measure the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on the entire surface of the Earth. It is expected to contribute to countermeasures against global warming.

The model will be replaced as the country’s mainstay space vehicle by the new H3 rocket, which was jointly developed by the Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Due to its high launch cost, which is said to be around ¥10 billion, the H2A rocket struggled to receive orders for commercial launches of overseas satellites. The new H3 rocket aims to offer a lower launch service price — half that of the H2A — to cash in on an increasing global demand for satellite launches.