Japanese rocket on 1st commercial flight launches Canadian comsat

Japan on Tuesday launched an H-2A rocket on its first fully commercial mission, carrying a communications satellite for a Canadian satellite company, which will provide broadband communications coverage from South America to the Middle East.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) launched Telesat's broadcast and telecommunication satellite, Telstar 12 VANTAGE (Telstar 12V), aboard the H-2A Launch Vehicle No. 29 (H-2A F29) at 3:50 p.m. (0650 GMT) on Tuesday from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center in Japan's southwestern Kagoshima prefecture.

About 4 minutes after liftoff, JAXA reports the four-meter-diameter payload fairing has been released from the rocket.

About 11 minutes after liftoff, the second stage's LE-5B engine has cut off and the H-2A rocket has reached a parking orbit.

About 22 minutes after liftoff, a second burn of the second stage engine started, which lasted about 4 minutes.

Telstar 12V's separation from the rocket was confirmed at about 8:18 p.m. (1118 GMT).

Earlier in 2013, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), the H-2A rocket's contractor and commercial operator, won its first order to launch a commercial satellite, Telstar 12V, for Telesat, a leading global satellite operator headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Telstar 12V, the latest addition to Telesat's fleet of communications satellites, will bridge the Atlantic Ocean with expanded coverage for television broadcasters and mobile users, covering the Americas and EMEA regions as well as maritime zones in Europe, the Caribbean and South Atlantic.

With a launch mass of under 5 tonnes with 11 kw of electrical power, Telstar 12V has been designed to have a nominal service life of more than 15 years in orbit.

The H-2A rocket on Tuesday for the first time ignited its second stage engine three times before deploying a payload. Other upgrades aboard this flight include an extra lithium-ion battery to power the stage during the long coast, and a 60-percent throttle setting to be used on the final engine firing to allow for a more accurate injection.

Through the upgrade development to improve its 2nd stage, the H-2A launch vehicle can allow a satellite in geostationary orbit to have a longer lifetime, said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

H-2A, Japan's primary large-scale launch vehicle, is designed to "meet diverse launch demands, at lower cost and with a high degree of reliability," said JAXA.

H-2A launch service operations have been transferred to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, LTD. ahead of the launch of H-2A Flight 13 in 2007. JAXA is in charge of launch safety management, including ground safety confirmation, flight safety assurance, and overall countdown control and supervision. The Japanese space agency is also conducting the H-2A upgrade project to improve the H-2A launch capability and its global competitiveness.

Since H-2A's first liftoff in 2001, the booster has been launched about 29 times and it has so far managed to obtain a success rate of some 95 percent. Tuesday's launch marked the fourth and final launch from Tanegashima this year. Enditem