/sci/ - Science & Math

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4595/1

> The losses to Japan caused by this failure are immeasurable. The satellite on the H3 was JAXA’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3). The ALOS-3 satellite was developed and manufactured at a total cost of about 28 billion yen (about $208 million). JAXA’s ALOS series has alternated between optical and synthetic aperture radar imaging satellites. ALOS-3 was the first advanced optical satellite for land observation since 2011, when the ALOS-1 satellite mission was completed. The ALOS-4 satellite, currently in the manufacturing and testing phase, is a synthetic aperture radar satellite. Therefore, JAXA is not expected to have an optical satellite for land observations until 2028 or later.

> [...] Therefore, until the H3 launch vehicle technology is proven, the GoJ should have planned to launch practical satellites for disaster risk reduction and security purposes on the more reliable H-2A launch vehicle. An alternative idea would be to use SpaceX’s Falcon 9, but that idea is unlikely to be adopted because the Basic Space Plan states that government satellites must be launched on Japan’s primary launch vehicles (either the H-IIA, the H3, or the Epsilon launch vehicle). This policy is to support Japan’s domestic space industries.

> Five launches of the H-IIA launch vehicles are scheduled in the future: three Information Gathering Satellites, the Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW), and the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM). Given the reasons mentioned above for JAXA’s decision to launch the ALOS-3 satellite on the H3, it is clear that the more essential satellites were assigned to the H-2A; that is, the ALOS-3 satellite had less policy importance compared to intelligence gathering satellites, SLIM, and others