WASHINGTON - The Japanese space agency will send an underwater robot to recover a sunken rocket engine that crashed into the Pacific Ocean last fall. The engine was discovered on Christmas Eve.

The LE 7 engine is believed to be a crucial piece of evidence in helping to determine why the H 2 launch vehicle malfunctioned during its November 15th liftoff.

Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) announced that it would send a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) owned by the U.S. salvage company Kutzleb Marine Service down to the floor of the Pacific Ocean and attach a rope to the wreckage of the rocket. A winch aboard the robot's control ship will then be used to lift the engine wreckage to the surface.

"We expect that the engine will allow us more detailed analysis and that will enhance our investigation," said Ryota Ito of NASDA's Washington, D.C. office. "We believe that we can do this [recover the engine] because we will have a private company bring up these larger parts."

The rocket debris will be brought to the National Aerospace Laboratory in Tokyo for examination. In addition to the engine wreckage, officials also hope to retrieve the rocket's liquid oxygen turbopump and skirt assembly from the ocean floor.

"Once these are in the lab the investigation will be moved forward more quickly," Ito told space.com.

The company that was selected to perform the engine recovery, Shin Nippon Kaiji Co. of Tokyo, has extensive experience in the recovery of crashed aircraft. But since Japanese robot vehicles can only operate at depths up to 6,560 feet (2,000 meters), the U.S.-made vehicle will be used instead. That robot will be able to operate in water up to 19,685 feet (6,000 meters) deep.

The schedule calls for the salvage ship to depart Yokosuka-Heisi Port January 15th and arrive over the crash site two days later. Recovery is expected to take up to three days. The wreckage should reach land by the 21st if the retrieval effort is successful, NASDA indicated.

Search vessels located the engine on Christmas Eve by the use of sonar probes. The debris is located in an area 235 miles (380 kilometers) northwest of the Ogasawara islands in the Pacific.

The engine that is the target of the search is believed to have shutdown prematurely during the November 15th launch, which resulted in range controllers destroying the vehicle and its payload minutes after takeoff.

Recovery and analysis of the engine may help engineers determine the cause of the failure and speed re-design of rocket systems for the next generation of Japanese rocket, called the H 2-A. That new vehicle, which shares some of the same systems as the rocket that failed in November, is to begin flight tests in 2001.