March 30, 2009 Vol. 2, Issue 3
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is preparing to debut its H-IIB launch vehicle this year.
The H-IIB, an updated version of JAXA’s H-IIA, is Japan’s first attempt at developing a two-engine cluster booster. It consists of two liquid rocket engines (versus one in the H-IIA) and has four separate solid rocket boosters (twice as many as the H-IIA). The primary use of the H-IIB will be to ferry up to six tons of cargo and other materials per year in an unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) to the International Space Station (ISS). This would include everything from daily supplies and spare parts to research-related materials needed by the crew of the ISS.
JAXA says that since it is reusing knowledge gained while building the H-IIA and combining it with more efficient production techniques, this has contributed to an overall lowering of development costs while increasing the launch vehicle’s usability and efficiency.
Read more about JAXAs H-IIB.
