Japan delays rocket launch due to high winds

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) of Japan Monday postponed the launch of a rocket, which was carrying a lunar lander, due to heavy winds.

The MHI said in a statement that the launch of domestically produced H-IIA rocket No. 47 (H-IIA F47) was postponed “due to the fact that the upper winds did not meet the launch conditions.”

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)-developed SLIM lunar lander – XRISM (Note1) and SLIM (Note2) designed to test technology for pinpoint landings on the moon's surface – is aboard the rocket.

The rocket was scheduled to be blasted off from Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in Japan’s southwestern province of Kagoshima.

If successful, Japan would join the group with the former Soviet Union, the US, China, and India to land a craft on the moon.

However, Japan’s space launches have faced multiple failures in the recent past.