Japan's H3 Rocket Launch of Navigation Satellite | Tanegashima Space Center

Japan's H3 Rocket Launch of Navigation Satellite | Tanegashima Space Center

🚀A Japanese H3 rocket (H3-22S/H3 F9) successfully launched the 🛰️“Michibiki” No. 7/Quasi-Zenith Satellite System 7 (QZS-7), a navigation satellite, from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center, on a small island in southwestern Japan, August 10, 2026, at 19:23 UTC (August 11, at 04:23 JST). This was the first nighttime H3 rocket launch.

The quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS), also known as Michibiki ("guidance"), is a regional navigation satellite system (RNSS) and a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) developed by the Japanese government to enhance the United States-operated global positioning system (GPS) in the Asia-Oceania regions with a focus on Japan. The goal of QZSS is to provide highly precise and stable positioning services in the Asia-Oceania region, compatible with GPS. For example, if every Michibiki satellite eventually supports JAXA's Advanced Satellite Navigation System (ASNAV), an ordinary receiver, the kind in a regular smartphone with no special antenna or correction service, could see its accuracy improve from today's 5-to-10 meters down to roughly 1 meter. This is the difference between "somewhere on this block" and "this side of the street."

The H3 is a Japanese medium-lift launch vehicle developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). A hydrolox-fuelled rocket, it is the successor to the H-IIA and H-IIB launch vehicles. The H3 uses the LE-9 main engine, which was designed to be less expensive to produce as part of a broader effort to lower launch costs. The rocket has a modular design. Its first stage is powered by two or three LE-9 engines and can be fitted with zero, two, or four SRB-3 solid rocket boosters. The second stage uses the LE-5B-3 engine, an upgraded version of the engine family used since the H-I rocket.

In addition to launching satellites into Earth orbit, the H3 is used to launch Japan's HTV-X cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. The H3 is now Japan's flagship rocket following its highly reliable H2A rockets that served as the country's main launch vehicle for over two decades.

Unfortunately, the track record of the H3 launch vehicle has been mixed. After the failure involving the H3 No. 8 rocket in December 2025, JAXA scrambled to fix an issue and succeeded in launching another H3 rocket in June 2026, putting multiple small satellites into orbit.

Image Credits: JAXA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kyodo News

Date: Aug. 10, 2026

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