TOKYO (Reuters) - The head of Japan's beleaguered space program handed in his resignation on Thursday to take responsibility for a series of accidents which has clouded the program's future.

Isao Uchida, head of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), told a meeting of the government's space program that he was stepping down after submitting a report on a rocket launch failure which occurred last November.

A NASDA spokesman said that with the report handed in, Uchida believed that "now was the time to quit."

His resignation will become official after it is approved by the cabinet, probably on Friday.

In addition to the November accident in which scientists had to blow up a flagship H 2 rocket after it failed to follow its proper path, another rocket failed to put a satellite into orbit in February.

The November accident has forced the quasi-governmental agency to abandon the H 2 rocket program.