Japan sends satellite into orbit

A Japanese rocket carrying a satellite into orbit has launched successfully, the second Japanese launch in a month.

The H-2A rocket lifted off in southern Japan carrying a 4.6-ton satellite designed to control air traffic and track weather patterns.

Mission control at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) confirmed the satellite separated from the rocket.

Japan's space programme has revived after a series of failures and a series of successes by regional rival China.

The programme's ninth H2-A rocket, which forms the centrepiece of Japan's space programme, took off from the Tanegashima space centre in the southern region of Kagoshima at 1555 (0655 GMT).

New success

Mission scientists said that the MTSAT-2 satellite separated successfully from the rocket within 30 minutes of the launch.

"The rocket launch went successfully, but it will take several days before we can find our whether the satellite performs its initial steps and enters the orbit successfully," said Jaxa spokeswoman Nobuko Sato.

The satellite is due to be inserted into a geostationary orbit some 36,000km (22,300 miles) above the equator.

It will serve as a backup to an existing weather satellite as well as helping track the crowded skies of the Asia-Pacific region.

Jaxa launched a land observation satellite in January and is due to launch an astronomical satellite on a smaller rocket early next week.

The Japanese space programme saw its fortunes revive with an H-2A launch in January 2005, 15 months after an aborted attempt ended with controllers destroying a rocket and its payload of spy satellites.

A recent attempt to collect samples from a remote asteroid was only a partial success - the Hayabusa probe did touch down on the rock 290 million km (180 million miles) but may not have collected samples, Jaxa said.