There is no humor to be found in Japan's recent disappointing -- and expensive -- rocket failures. Nevertheless, the news that the spectacular crash of an H-II rocket last November may have been caused by design and planning errors does more than suggest that the nation's rocket scientists should go back to their drawing boards, as the tag line of the old joke puts it. Together with indications that the accident involving an M-5 rocket in February may have resulted from flaws in its materials, it raises the question of whether Japan should continue its dogged pursuit of a costly rocket-development program that seems to have had few positive results.
The frank assessments of the reasons for the two recent failures came from a team from the Space Activities Commission, the nation's senior space-policy board, which pointed out what it considers to be specific design and planning mistakes in the No. 8 H-II rocket, which was carrying a government-owned multipurpose satellite when engine failure caused it to crash. The team's report blamed the engineers responsible for the rocket's design for failing to include a system to clear up questions raised by the detection of abnormal phenomena during the development stage. The National Space Development Agency of Japan says its experts actually are back at their drawing boards, preparing a new design to eliminate the recently discovered problem.
The Space Activities Commission report cites the need for more substantial basic research on rocket materials, appearing to join the many critics who often point out Japan's weakness in basic research. Whether or not that contributed, both of the recent accidents occurred shortly after liftoff. The details on the failure of the M-5 rocket, barely a half a minute into its flight, to put a multibillion-yen astronomical observation satellite into the planned orbit were provided to the assessment team by the Education Ministry's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, which has jurisdiction over such launches and which some believe is an indication of "too many cooks" being involved in the rocket program.