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Japan prepares to launch second set of spy satellites

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 06:00 CST

TOKYO (AP) -- After several delays, all systems are go for this weekend's launch of Japan's second set of spy satellites, part of a multibillion dollar surveillance program aimed primarily at North Korea, officials said Wednesday.

The satellites are to be launched on Saturday atop an orange and black H-2A rocket, the workhorse of Japan's space program, said Hiroaki Sato, a spokesman for Japan's space agency, JAXA.

Sato said the rocket, still in its hangar at the Tanegashima Space Center on a tiny southern Japan island, was undergoing routine pre-launch checks and would be moved to its launch pad either on Friday or early Saturday.

The launch was originally scheduled for Sept. 10 but had to be postponed three times due to technical problems.

Officials also had to steer clear of another problem -- fishing season.

October and November are among the best times of the year to catch lobsters, crabs and flying fish. To placate local fishermen, Japanese space officials have for the past four decades set launch schedules around catch seasons, meaning the launch window runs from January to February and mid-July through the end of September.

Sato said the agency received special permission from local fishermen to conduct Saturday's launch.

``We negotiated the dates, and they agreed,'' he said.

More launches are scheduled through 2006 to put a total of eight satellites in orbit, Sato said.

Japan successfully launched its first spy satellites into orbit on March 28 as part of a US$2 billion plan to monitor North Korea's missile and nuclear programs.

The program has been criticized in Japan, where opponents say it violates a long-standing policy of conducting only nonmilitary space missions. Officials counter that the satellites are no threat and will also be used to monitor natural disasters and weather patterns.

The program was prompted, however, by concern in this country after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan's main island in 1998. North Korea has strongly protested the program, saying it will escalate a regional arms race.

The launch will be the sixth of the domestically designed, two-stage H-2A, which has marked five straight successes but is seen as too expensive to compete with its European, Russian and American rivals in the commercial market.

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