{"id":188600,"date":"2025-12-17T03:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T03:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/188600\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T03:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T03:05:13","slug":"watch-japanese-h3-rocket-launch-michibiki-5-navigation-satellite-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/188600\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Japanese H3 rocket launch Michibiki 5 navigation satellite tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u6e96\u5929\u9802\u885b\u661f\u30b7\u30b9\u30c6\u30e0\u300c\u307f\u3061\u3073\u304d5\u53f7\u6a5f\u300d\u3000\uff0fH3\u30ed\u30b1\u30c3\u30c88\u53f7\u6a5f\u6253\u4e0a\u3052\u30e9\u30a4\u30d6\u4e2d\u7d99 – YouTube
\n\"\u6e96\u5929\u9802\u885b\u661f\u30b7\u30b9\u30c6\u30e0\u300c\u307f\u3061\u3073\u304d5\u53f7\u6a5f\u300d\u3000\uff0fH3\u30ed\u30b1\u30c3\u30c88\u53f7\u6a5f\u6253\u4e0a\u3052\u30e9\u30a4\u30d6\u4e2d\u7d99<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Japan will launch a new navigation satellite to orbit tonight (Dec. 16), and you can watch the action live.<\/p>\n

An H3<\/a> rocket is scheduled to launch the Michibiki 5 spacecraft from Tanegashima Space Center<\/a> today at 9:10 p.m. EST (0210 GMT and 11:10 a.m. local Japan time on Dec. 17).<\/p>\n

You can watch it here at Space.com, courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA<\/a>), or directly via the agency<\/a>. Coverage will begin at 8:15 p.m. EST (0115 GMT).<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\n

\"an\n<\/p>\n

A Japanese H3 rocket launches the Michibiki 6 navigation satellite from Tanegashima Space Center on Feb. 2, 2025. (Image credit: JAXA)<\/p>\n

The 10,580-pound (4,800-kilogram) Michibiki 5 will be part of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Japan’s homegrown navigation network in geosynchronous orbit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“This system is compatible with GPS satellites<\/a> and can be utilized with them in an integrated fashion,” Japanese officials wrote in a description of the QZSS project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“QZSW can be used even in the Asia-Oceania regions with longitudes close to Japan, so its usage will be expanded to other countries in these regions as well,” they added.<\/p>\n

Five QZSS satellites have reached orbit to date, starting with a pathfinder that launched in September 2010. That spacecraft, called Michibiki 1, was replaced by Michibiki 1R, which flew in October 2021.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

Michibiki 5 will make QZSS a five-satellite system. But the launches won’t end there: The constellation will eventually consist of 11 spacecraft<\/a>, if all goes to plan.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s launch will be the seventh to date for the two-stage H3, the successor to Japan’s workhorse H-2A, which retired this past June<\/a> after 24 years of service.<\/p>\n

The H3 failed during its debut launch in March 2023, resulting in the loss of the ALOS-3 Earth-observing satellite. But the medium-lift rocket bounced back strong, acing its next five missions, including a February 2025 launch<\/a> that sent another Michibiki satellite to orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u6e96\u5929\u9802\u885b\u661f\u30b7\u30b9\u30c6\u30e0\u300c\u307f\u3061\u3073\u304d5\u53f7\u6a5f\u300d\u3000\uff0fH3\u30ed\u30b1\u30c3\u30c88\u53f7\u6a5f\u6253\u4e0a\u3052\u30e9\u30a4\u30d6\u4e2d\u7d99 – YouTube Watch On Japan will launch a new navigation satellite to orbit tonight (Dec. 16), and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-188600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}