Japan spy satellite launch postponed due to bad weather

Tokyo, Feb 16: Bad weather forced Japan today to postpone the launch of a fourth spy satellite that will expand its ability to monitor potential threats including North Korea, whose missile arsenal can reach all of Japan.

Japan's space agency, JAXA, announced the delay shortly before the flagship H2-A rocket was due to lift off from a space centre on southern Tanegashima island.

JAXA said a new launch date had yet to be determined but that the window for possible launches extends to the end of the month.

The radar satellite to be launched will join two optical satellites and another radar satellite already in operation.

By having the pairs of radar and optical satellites working together, Japan will be able to monitor any point on Earth once a day, government officials have said.

The launch had originally been scheduled for yesterday but had already been delayed once by bad weather.

Japan's spy satellite programme was initiated after North Korea launched a ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan.

The programme was delayed in 2003 when a rocket carrying two satellites veered off course and had to be destroyed in a spectacular fireball.

North Korea ratcheted up regional tensions last year when it conducted a nuclear test in October after a salvo of missile tests in July.

In January, China triggered concern around the world by carrying out an anti-satellite test, using a ballistic missile to shoot down a satellite in space.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's national security adviser told Reuters in November that Japan needs to improve the capabilities of its spy satellites and should study whether to lift a decades-old ban on military use of space to allow it to do so.

Japan has adhered to a 1969 parliamentary resolution limiting the use of space to peaceful purposes, but Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is likely to submit a bill to the current session of parliament that would ease regulations and allow non-aggressive military use of space, LDP officials have said.

At present, Japan's satellites can differentiate objects a metre or more in diameter, whereas US military satellites are said to be able to do so for items one-tenth as large.

Reuters