spacetoday.net: Japan wins commercial launch contract for H-2A

Posted: Fri, Sep 27, 2013, 6:40 AM ET (1040 GMT)
H-2A launch of Ibuki (JAXA)

The Japanese company that markets the H-2A rocket announced Thursday that it had won its first contract for the launch of a commercial communications satellite. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) said it had signed a contract with Telesat to launch that company's Telesat 12 VANTAGE satellite in late 2015. Telesat announced last month that it had ordered the satellite, with a launch mass of less than five tons, from EADS Astrium. The contract is a breakthrough for MHI, which had been marketing the H-2A rocket to commercial customers for the last several years without success. The company said it will now enhance its marketing efforts in a bid to win additional commercial launch orders.