Launch of multipurpose satellite to be postponed

Japan Policy & Politics, Nov 19, 2001

TOKYO, Nov. 15 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH U.S. WEATHER SATELLITE NOAA TO COVER IN CASES OF HIMAWARI'S IRREGULARITIES)

The launch of an advanced multifunctional satellite scheduled for February 2003 for weather observation and air traffic control will be put off by several months due to production delays at its U.S. maker, government officials said Thursday.

The Multifunctional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) was commissioned in 2000 to be built by Space Systems/Loral to replace the Japanese weather satellite Himawari 5 and provide next-generation aeronautical communications and navigational services.

However, the California-based satellite firm asked the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in late July this year to change the delivery schedule from February 2003 to July or August that year, the officials said.

Officials from the weather agency said the Himawari 5 ended its designed service time at the end of March last year and provisional measures were taken to extend its use.

They warned that any more delays in the MTSAT launch would affect data collection in weather forecasting as the Himawari 5 is Japan's only weather satellite. It was put into orbit in 1995.

If the Himawari 5 experiences irregularities, data collected by the U.S. weather satellite NOAA will be used instead, according to the meteorological agency.

However, as NOAA is not a static satellite like the Himawari 5 or the MTSAT, it cannot observe Japan around the clock, making a decline in the precision of weather observation inevitable.

The agency said it will also consider having satellites from other countries cover for the Himawari 5 if it malfunctions.

In an effort to prolong the satellite's effective life span, the agency has already decreased the number of times the Himawari 5 makes observations in the western part of the Pacific Ocean in the southern hemisphere and has deleted its observation of areas south of New Zealand, according to the agency.

Government officials said once it is ready, the MTSAT will be launched into a stationary orbit above the equator, as was the Himawari 5.