Japan's new H-2a rocket was declared a success on Wednesday after lifting off on its maiden flight and successfully releasing a dummy satellite payload into orbit, national space agency officials said.

“We have had a successful launch,” said National Space Development Agency (NASDA) spokesman Toshihiko Kikuyama. “This was very much a success. We should get bonus points.”
The 53-metre tall rocket weighing 285 tonnes with a full load of fuel blasted off from a launch site on Tanegashima island some 1,000 kms southwest of Tokyo on schedule at 4:00 pm (1230 IST).
The mission's goal was to prove Japan had the technology to reach space after several embarrassing failures and to gather flight data and test the performance of the engines and propellant.
The H-2a launch was postponed for more than a year at the end of 1999 after two consecutive failures with the H-2 in February 1998 and November 1999, which, coming on top of the loss of a satellite, threw the Japanese space industry into turmoil.

Bureau Report