{"id":40036,"date":"2026-08-12T04:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T23:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40036"},"modified":"2026-08-12T04:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T23:31:22","slug":"japan-gains-edge-in-latest-round-of-china-space-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40036","title":{"rendered":"Japan gains edge in latest round of China space rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/5341786490218\/2026\/upi_com\/4535e954ca42a1db666877ba6e61bbad\/v1.5\/Japan-gains-edge-in-latest-round-of-China-space-rivalry.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>1 of 2 | A Long March-7A carrier rocket carrying the ChinaSat 3B satellite blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan Province, China, 20 May 2025. Photo by Zhang Liyun \/ XINHUA \/ EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">Aug. 11 (Asia Today) &#8212;<\/span> China and Japan produced sharply contrasting results in their space programs this week, with a Chinese Long March 7A rocket failing Monday and Japan successfully launching an H3 rocket carrying a navigation satellite Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>China generally holds an advantage over Japan in the scale and record of its space program after decades of sustained national investment that has produced a series of major achievements.\n<\/p>\n<p>The results on Monday and Tuesday, however, went in Japan&#8217;s favor.<\/p>\n<p>China launched a modified Long March 7 rocket carrying the Zhongxing-4B communications satellite at about 8:02 p.m. Monday from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province.<\/p>\n<p>The launch failed after the rocket developed an abnormality during flight and could not complete its mission.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese space specialists and officials at Wenchang are investigating the cause.<\/p>\n<p>The failure was particularly notable because it was the first unsuccessful launch of a Long March 7A since the medium-lift rocket&#8217;s inaugural flight in March 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket was developed primarily for missions to higher orbits.<\/p>\n<p>Liang Yongchang, a doctoral student at Beihang University in Beijing, said investigators could discover problems involving common components, manufacturing procedures or launch-site operations.<\/p>\n<p>If such problems are found, other planned launches could also require additional inspections, he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Japan recorded a successful mission one day later.<\/p>\n<p>At 4:23 a.m. Tuesday, Japan launched the ninth H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture on Kyushu.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket carried Michibiki No. 7, part of Japan&#8217;s satellite navigation system.<\/p>\n<p>The H3 is Japan&#8217;s next-generation main launch vehicle and is intended to carry key national satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n<p>The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the successful flight helped the program recover from a launch failure late last year that resulted in the loss of another satellite.<\/p>\n<p>Japan is working to establish a seven-satellite Michibiki constellation capable of providing independent high-precision positioning services without relying solely on foreign systems.<\/p>\n<p>China, meanwhile, is preparing at Wenchang for the launch of Chang&#8217;e 7, its next unmanned lunar exploration mission.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese space officials are expected to scrutinize the Long March failure as they prepare for future missions.<\/p>\n<p>Japan is also expected to continue working toward its seven-satellite positioning constellation.<\/p>\n<p>The back-to-back results do not overturn China&#8217;s broader lead in many areas of space activity, but they highlight the increasingly visible competition between the two Asian powers in launch vehicles, satellites and advanced aerospace technology.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8212; Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a9 Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n<p><i>Original Korean report: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260811010003495\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.asiatoday.co.kr\/kn\/view.php?key=20260811010003495<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 of 2 | A Long March-7A carrier rocket carrying the ChinaSat 3B satellite blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan Province, China, 20 May 2025. Photo by Zhang Liyun \/ XINHUA \/ EPA Aug. 11 (Asia Today) &#8212; China and Japan produced sharply contrasting results in their space programs this week, with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/5341786490218\/2026\/1\/4535e954ca42a1db666877ba6e61bbad\/v1.5\/Japan-gains-edge-in-latest-round-of-China-space-rivalry.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}