02 July, 2024
Japan H3 Rocket Successfully launches ALOS-4 Satellite
The Japan Aerosapce Exploration Agency (JAXA) have successfully launched the ALOS-4 Earth observation satellite aboard the new flagship H3 rocket into low Earth orbit to monitor the Earth. This is the third time ever that the H3 rocket has successfully launched. The full deployment of its solar array paddles was confirmed by telemetry data the same day by Mingenew Station in Australia followed by Santiago Station in Chile.
H3 rocket lifted off from Tanegashima Space Centre, located in the southeast edge of Tanegashima, one of the Osumi Islands on July 1, 2024 12:06:42 (JST) with the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS-4) onboard, primarily with the mission of Earth observation and data collection for the purpose of mapmaking and disaster response.
ALOS-4 (1m - 10m resolution) is a successor of the SAR mission of ALOS-2 and ALOS-3. To compare, ALOS-4 observation swath capabilities have been dramatically increased from 50km on ALOS-2 to 200km on ALOS-4 while maintaining high resolution. ALOS-4 is also equipped with a Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring the location of vessels at seas, improving marine safety.
![Photo: ALOS-4 PALSAR (200km) [Left] and ALOS-2 PALSAR (50km) [Right]. Source: ALOS-4 Research and Application Project [EORC]](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Compare%20of%20ALOS-4%20and%20ALOS-2-01.png)
Geoimage is a proud reseller of the ALOS constellation.
One Year Earlier
The successful launching of the ALOS-4 satellite has been an extra special occasion for JAXA with the 57 metre (187 ft) H3 inaugural launch on March 7 2023 unsuccessful during launch, with the second-stage engine failing to ignite, preventing the ALOS-3 satellite entering Earth's orbit, leading to controllers to issue a destruct command on the rocket, losing the ALOS-3 satellite. This was Japan's first new rocket model in thirty years. ALOS-3 was the initial successor of ALOS-2 with sensors onboard designed for improved ground resolution and wider swatch and was initially built to be the key tool for disaster management and countermeasures of disasters along with the addition of the upgraded global geospatial information, research and applications for environmental monitoring. You can read more about the inaugural launch of ALOS-3 using the link provided.
You can read the official press release from JAXA here.
