On June 28, the H-IIA rocket successfully launched a satellite into orbit to study the Earth. This flight was remarkable in that it was the last for the carrier, which had long been Japan’s primary vehicle for accessing space.

The H-IIA rocket made its debut in 2001. It had a two-stage design and was operated in four modifications, differing in the number of solid-fuel boosters used.
The H-IIA was mainly used for JAXA scientific missions, as well as for launching reconnaissance satellites for the Japanese armed forces. The rocket also performed several commercial launches, for example, for satellite operators Inmarsat and Telesat. However, its relatively high cost and low flight frequency made it difficult to obtain private orders.
In total, during its entire service life, the H-IIA has made 50 flights into space. Only the sixth mission in November 2003 ended in failure, resulting in the loss of two reconnaissance satellites.
The final 50th flight of the H-IIA took place on June 28. The rocket was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center and successfully delivered its payload, the GOSAT-GW satellite, into sun-synchronous orbit. It is designed to measure the amount of water on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere, as well as to monitor greenhouse gases. The planned service life of GOSAT-GW is seven years.
More than a decade ago, the Japanese government announced plans to gradually replace the H-IIA with the H3 rocket, which should provide a higher flight frequency at a lower cost. H3 debuted in March 2023, but its first flight didn’t end well.
The first successful launch of H3 took place almost a year later, when it entered orbit with a test payload. Since then, the rocket has made three more flights, the last of which took place in February 2025. All of them were successful.
According to Spacenews