FOX News: Japan launches new, cheaper rocket after postponement due to computer glitch

FOX News FOXNews.com - Breaking news and video. Latest Current News: U.S., World, Entertainment, Health, Business, Technology, Politics, Sports. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Want free Kindle ebooks? Sign up to receive the best freebie Kindle ebook deals in your email every day. From our sponsors

Japan launches new, cheaper rocket after postponement due to computer glitch Sep 16th 2013, 12:00 TOKYO –  Japan launched a new rocket that it hopes will be a cheaper and more efficient way of sending satellites into space. The three-stage Epsilon lifted off from a space center on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Saturday, following a two-week postponement. An earlier launch last month was aborted 19 seconds before a planned liftoff due to a computer glitch. The liftoff was broadcast live on television networks, with footage showing a white, pencil-shaped rocket shot into the sky from the launch pad after spurting gray smoke and orange flash. The Epsilon is the first new rocket design for Japan since the H2A was introduced in 2001. The H2A remains Japan's primary rocket but officials hope the Epsilon will lead to improvements in the more costly H2A program. Japan hopes to be more competitive in the international rocket-launching business. The rocket was to carry the SPRINT-A, the first space telescope designed to observe other planets. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said the Epsilon costs about 3.8 billion yen ($40 million), one-third the cost of the H2A. The rocket is about 80 feet tall, half the size of the H2A, and can be assembled and readied for launch in just one week, one-sixth of the time required for the H2A. The Epsilon rocket, which uses a solid-fuel propellant, is meant to expand the scope of space missions Japan hopes to perform. It also streamlines the launch process. JAXA says the rocket's extensive use of computer technology means monitoring work that once required a full-staff control room can be done essentially on a single laptop.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions