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Japan launchs spy satellite
24/02/2007 11:42 - (SA)
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| Japan's H-2A rocket, carrying a spy satellite, blasts off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Tanegashima. (Kyodo News, AP) |
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Tokyo - Japan has launched its fourth spy satellite, improving its ability to monitor potential threats including North Korea, whose missile and nuclear tests have spooked the region.
An H-2A rocket, delayed three times by bad weather, finally lifted off from the southern island of Tanegashima on Saturday, carrying a radar satellite that would join two optical satellites and another radar satellite already in operation.
With the full complement of four satellites, Japan would be able to monitor any point on Earth once a day, government officials said.
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 when it conducted a nuclear test in October after a salvo of missile tests in July.
'Space for peace only'
In January, China destroyed one of its own satellites by firing a ballistic missile at it. The experiment sparked criticism from around the world.
Japan's space scientists have long complained that the country's technical prowess had fallen behind because of a 1969 parliamentary resolution limiting the use of space to peaceful purposes.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party was 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 said.
The rocket launched on Saturday was also carrying an experimental optical satellite, aimed at improving the level of detail obtained from the next generation of satellites.
Japan's satellites can distinguish objects a metre or more in diameter, whereas United States military satellites are said to be able to do so for items one-tenth as large.
- Reuters
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