H-IIA

Liftoff of H-IIA Flight 19

H-IIA rocket lineup

H-IIA

H-IIA (H2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The liquid-fueled H-IIA rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit, to launch a lunar orbiting spacecraft, and to launch an interplanetary space probe to Venus. Launches occur at the Tanegashima Space Center. The H-IIA first flew in 2001 and has been launched 30 times by February 2016.

Production and management of the H-IIA shifted from JAXA to MHI on April 1, 2007. Flight 13, which launched the lunar orbiter SELENE, was the first H-IIA launched after this privatization.^[1]

The H-IIA is a derivative of the earlier H-II rocket, substantially redesigned to improve reliability and minimize costs. There are currently two (formerly four) different variants of the H-IIA in active service for various purposes. A derivative design, the H-IIB, was developed in the 2000s and made its maiden flight in 2009.

Vehicle description

The launch capability of an H-IIA launch vehicle can be enhanced by adding SRB-A (solid rocket booster or SRB) and Castor 4AXL (solid strap-on booster or SSB) to its basic configuration, creating a "family". The models are indicated by three or four numbers following the prefix "H2A". The first number in the sequence indicates the number of stages; the second number of liquid rocket boosters (LRBs); the third number of SRBs; and, if present, the fourth number shows the number of SSBs.^[2] The first two figures are virtually fixed at "20", as H-IIA is always two-staged, and the plans for LRBs were cancelled and superseded by the H-IIB.

Variants

As of 2007 there are four different configurations shown in the following table.

Launch history

The first H-IIA was successfully launched on August 29, 2001, followed by a string of successes.

The sixth launch on November 29, 2003, intended to launch two IGS reconnaissance satellites, failed. JAXA announced that launches would resume in 2005, and the first successful flight took place on February 26 with the launch of MTSAT-1R.

The first launch for a mission beyond Earth orbit was on September 14, 2007 for the SELENE moon mission. The first foreign payload on the H-IIA was the Australian FedSat-1 in 2002. As of March 2015, 27 out of 28 launches were successful.

A rocket with increased launch capabilities, H-IIB, is a derivative of the H-IIA family. H-IIB uses two LE-7A engines in its first stage, as opposed to one in H-IIA. The first H-IIB was successfully launched on September 10, 2009.

For the 29th flight on November 24, 2015, an H-IIA with an upgraded second stage^[4] launched the Canadian Telstar 12V satellite, the first commercial primary payload for a Japanese launch vehicle.^[5]

Date (UTC)	Flight	Type	Payload	Result
August 29, 2001 07:00:00	TF1	H2A202	VEP 2 LRE	Success
February 4, 2002 02:45:00	TF2	H2A2024	VEP 3 MDS-1 (Tsubasa) DASH	Success
September 10, 2002 08:20:00	F3	H2A2024	USERS DRTS (Kodama)	Success
December 14, 2002 01:31:00	F4	H2A202	ADEOS 2 (Midori 2) WEOS (Kanta-kun) FedSat 1 Micro LabSat 1	Success
March 28, 2003 01:27:00	F5	H2A2024	IGS-Optical 1 IGS-Radar 1	Success
November 29, 2003 04:33:00	F6	H2A2024	IGS-Optical (2) IGS-Radar (2)	Failure[note]
February 26, 2005 09:25:00	F7	H2A2022	MTSAT-1R (Himawari 6)	Success
January 24, 2006 01:33:00	F8	H2A2022	ALOS (Daichi)	Success
February 18, 2006 06:27:00	F9	H2A2024	MTSAT-2 (Himawari 7)	Success
September 11, 2006 04:35:00	F10	H2A202	IGS-Optical 2	Success
December 18, 2006 06:32:00	F11	H2A204	ETS-VIII (Kiku 8)	Success
February 24, 2007 04:41:00	F12	H2A2024	IGS-Radar 2 IGS-Optical 3V	Success
September 14, 2007 01:31:01	F13	H2A2022	SELENE (Kaguya)	Success
February 23, 2008 08:55:00	F14	H2A2024	WINDS (Kizuna)	Success
January 23, 2009 03:54:00	F15	H2A202	GOSAT (Ibuki) SDS-1 STARS (Kūkai) KKS-1 (Kiseki) PRISM (Hitomi) Sohla-1 (Maido 1) SORUNSAT-1 (Kagayaki) SPRITE-SAT (Raijin)	Success[6]
November 28, 2009 01:21:00 [7]	F16	H2A202	IGS-Optical 3	Success
May 20, 2010 21:58:22[8][9][10]	F17	H2A202[11]	PLANET-C (Akatsuki) IKAROS UNITEC-1 (Shin'en) Waseda-SAT2 K-Sat (Hayato) Negai☆	Success
September 11, 2010 11:17:00[12]	F18	H2A202	QZS-1 (Michibiki)	Success
September 23, 2011 04:36:50 [13]	F19	H2A202	IGS-Optical 4	Success
December 12, 2011 01:21:00 [14]	F20	H2A202	IGS-Radar 3	Success
May 17, 2012 16:39:00	F21	H2A202[15]	GCOM-W1 (Shizuku) KOMPSAT-3 (Arirang 3) SDS-4 HORYU-2	Success
January 27, 2013 04:40:00	F22	H2A202	IGS-Radar 4 IGS-Optical 5V	Success
February 27, 2014 18:37:00	F23	H2A202	GPM-Core SindaiSat (Ginrei) STARS-II TeikyoSat-3 ITF-1 OPUSAT INVADER KSAT2	Success
May 24, 2014 03:05:14	F24	H2A202	ALOS-2 (Daichi 2) RISING-2 UNIFORM-1 SOCRATES SPROUT	Success
October 7, 2014 05:16:00	F25	H2A202	Himawari 8	Success
December 3, 2014 04:22:04	F26	H2A202	Hayabusa 2 Shin'en 2 ARTSAT2-DESPATCH PROCYON	Success
February 1, 2015 01:21:00	F27	H2A202	IGS-Radar Spare	Success
March 26, 2015 01:21:00	F28	H2A202	IGS-Optical 5	Success
November 24, 2015[16] 06:50:00	F29	H2A204	Telstar 12 Vantage	Success
February 17, 2016 08:45:00[16]	F30	H2A202	ASTRO-H (Hitomi) ChubuSat-2 ChubuSat-3 Horyu-4	Success
November 2, 2016 06:20:00	F31	H2A202	Himawari 9	Success
Planned launches
January 2017		H2A20x	DSN-2	Planned
2017 (TBD)		H2A202	GCOM-C SLATS	Planned
2017 (TBD)		H2A202	GOSAT-2 KhalifaSat	Planned

^note A hot gas leak from one SRB-A motor destroyed its separation system. The strap-on did not separate as planned, and the weight of the spent motor prevented the vehicle from achieving its planned height.^[17]

See also

• Comparison of orbital launchers families
• Comparison of orbital launch systems

References

Notes

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to H-IIA.

• H-IIA LAUNCH SERVICES, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
• JAXA H-IIA English page
• JAXA English page
• JAXA Launch Schedule
• Tanegashima Space Center
• "Tanegashima Space Center"– VISIT JAXA --
• Encyclopedia Astronautica page
• Failed Launch, 11-29-2003
• Image
• Launch 2 Image

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