A team of scientists have located and photographed the engine of the Japanese space agency's recently exploded H 2 rocket, ending a month-long search in the Pacific Ocean. The engine was discovered on Christmas Eve.
The search operation took place aboard the Yokosuka, a ship owned by Japan Marine Science and Technology Center and operated in conjunction with the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). The wreckage was found with the aid of an underwater imaging probe, called Deeptow. The probe returned a low-resolution picture of the LE 7 rocket engine.
The find will help the agency greatly in its effort to build two versions of a replacement rocket and learn more about what caused the H 2 to explode in November 1999.
The explosion marked the second failure in the H 2 program and followed a series of launch delays caused by engine and other technical problems.
Without the engine itself -- thought to be the cause of the failure -- engineers investigating the failure only had launch data up to moment of the explosion.
"In addition to that, now we have physically the real thing. That is far better than the telemetry analysis," said Ryota Ito, assistant representative to the Washington, D.C. office of the National Space Development Agency of Japan.
"If we have the real thing, the actual engine, before us, we can have better insight into the cause," he said.
[Finding the engine] is far better than the telemetry analysis.
A sonar probe called Kaikou searched an area 235 miles (380 kilometers) northwest of Ogasawara Islands and initially located the engine. That search yielded parts of the rocket's first stage, but not the engine.
Trouble inside the engine in the rocket's first stage is thought to have ended a post-launch burn prematurely just before the H 2 exploded.
A NASDA investigation team has reported that a blocked hydrogen piping system, an opening in the piping system or an opening between a pre-burner combustion chamber and the upper reaches of the engine's turbines could be to blame.
Starting Saturday, a team aboard a ship called Natsushima will use a higher-resolution imaging probe called Dolphin 3 K to get a closer look at the engine and try to haul up smaller pieces of the engine.
NASDA will rely on a private company in coming months to drag the bulk of the engine from the ocean, Ito said.
The Japanese Space Agency canceled its upcoming H 2 launches after the November failure and now is focusing on designs for two versions of a replacement rocket in a follow-on H 2-A program, with a first launch tentatively planned for 2001.
The H 2 and H 2-A share some system and sub-system designs, so knowledge of what caused the November 15, 1999 explosion could speed the re-design process. The November failure set back the Japanese launch development program by at least a year.
NASDA is weighing requests for the rocket to launch either the Data Relay Test Satellite-West or a European Space Agency advanced communications satellite called Artemis.
The H 2 and H 2-A programs are designed to make it cheaper for NASDA to reliably put payloads into space.
Frank Sietzen, special to space.com, contributed to this story.
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