Japan's space agency on Tuesday delayed the maiden launch of its new H3 rocket to later in the week due to unfavorable weather conditions, the latest in a string of postponements.
The H2A rocket's successor, which was scheduled to be launched on Wednesday, is now slated to take off on Friday between 10:37 a.m. and 10:44 a.m. from the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
JAXA said it had postponed the launch after assessing that the cloudy and rainy weather conditions forecast for Wednesday would be unsuitable.
The agency had initially planned to launch the H3 rocket, carrying a land observation satellite, on Feb. 12 but delayed to Feb. 15 after finding a flight system problem.
