Japan is studying a reusable rocket, but it won’t fly before 2030

Enlarge / Japan’s first H3 rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on a failed test flight in March.Photo by STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images

Japan debuted the new flagship H3 rocket in March, capping a decade-long, nearly $1.5 billion development effort to replace a launch vehicle that has been in service for more than 20 years. The H3’s upper stage failed to ignite a few minutes after liftoff, causing the rocket and its Earth observation payload to crash into the Pacific Ocean.

Officials in the Japanese government are already plotting the replacement for the H3 rocket, which had

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