TOKYO (AP) _ Japan's space shuttle successfully lifted off Christmas Island in the South Pacific on its first test flight, soaring for about five miles before landing with only a slight jolt, Japan's space agency announced Friday.
The 10-minute flight was the latest success for the country's beleaguered, cash-strapped space program. Last month, its often problematic H-2A rocket reversed a string of glitches by putting two satellites in orbit after a trouble-free launch.
Japan's delta-wing space shuttle, an unmanned jet-powered craft, took flight Thursday from the National Space Development Agency's tiny tracking outpost on Christmas Island. The craft cruised at about 130 mph, reaching an altitude of nearly 2,000 feet before gliding back to earth.
``It was a success,'' NASDA spokesman Hiroshi Inoue said. ``There was a small problem of bouncing during the landing, but it caused no damage.''
Thursday's flight tested the craft's navigation and automatic piloting through global positioning satellites. Four more tests are planned through next week, with the craft's speed gradually being jacked up to about 0.5 mach, or half the speed of sound, Inoue said.
Japan's space shuttle is not expected to challenge NASA, which has been flying space shuttles for more than two decades.
Besides being much smaller and unmanned, the Japanese shuttle is the prototype for a program _ the Hope-X project _ recently put on hold because of budget cuts.
Hope-X, started in the 1980s to develop a reusable unmanned space shuttle, originally was slated for launch in 2004. But lack of funds pushed it four years behind schedule before it was postponed.
Inoue would not speculate about when the Hope-X might be resurrected, but he said the purpose of Thursday's test flight was to gather data for future projects.
Japan will spend $22.4 million on two rounds of testing for the space shuttle, the current round on Christmas Island and a later one scheduled for next spring in Sweden.
Though Japan has sent an unmanned probe into lunar orbit and is striving to compete in the commercial satellite launching market, its space program has been rife with problems.
A February launch of Japan's H-2A rocket, the main focus of its space program, failed when one of the probes was lost in space.
Still, Japan has pledged 10 more launches over the next three years. A fall launch is planned between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, and a space shot early next year will carry Japan's first spy satellite.
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