Japan's Biggest Rockets - Keeping The Thor Alive 

"Built by Nissan - the car company" just like Chrysler (the car company) worked on Redstone, Jupiter, Saturn I & Saturn IB.

Japan's space program is like that guy you know who could walk on to an elite sports team if he wanted, but chooses to manage an Applebee's for unknown reasons.

The dogleg maneuver after booster jettison on the first H3 flight really shocked me. It sure appeared to be yawing out of control, but nope, it flew perfectly. I was mostly ready for it on the second flight, but it still looked quite odd!

A McDonnell Douglas engineer who was posted in Japan to assist them with the licensed Thor told me that in-country American engineers figured the Japanese-produced boosters would have a high failure rate. That's because of how when problems came up, one Japanese engineer wouldn't say anything which might reflect poorly on another Japanese engineer -- a cultural thing. Reliability was instead excellent, so apparently there was some alternative way in which the Japanese communicated issues that needed to be addressed (or maybe they just didn't trash each other around the Americans ; )

Hopefully Scott you can get guided tour of their launch facility one day. On Google Maps it looks like quiet a scenic launch pad in a bay.

Nice segment. Funny enough, I came across this after I had actually visited the campus of the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science today, in Sagamihara. They have a modest museum and store (where the were selling models of H-2 and H-3 rockets). So great to receive this history after going through their exhibits (which included a M-V rocket fairing with a satellite mock up, a reproduction of the SLIM probe, a sample of the Ryugu asteroid, etc.).

Finally a video on Japan’s current day launch vehicles! I also like tuning into their launch broadcasts, the way information is presented is very good and weirdly quite soothing. The Japanese language does that to me 😂. The highlight for me is the final countdown with the automated AI Japanese voice and of course “main engine start-o!”. Love it.

I see Japan got fed up with the Nippon Model Rocketry Club having more advanced guidance control than JAXA.

I think the company who made the strap-on boosters for N-1 was still being called Prince Motor at the time. They already had good experience with solid fuel motors at the time.

So happy to see you using Juno New Origins

I lived in Southern Japan for three years and tried so hard to get down to Tanegashima to watch an H2A launch, to no avail. Maybe I can try for the H3 now.

Kiros was covered for a glimpse only .. ... but - as usual - great compilation of launch vehicle related stuff ! Thank you, Scott !!!

There were other nation who wanted licence the Thor-Delta or buy in early 1960 West Germany look in option to build Thor-Delta and launch them, that proposal went no were after failure Europa II rocket ESRO proposed in 1970s to buy Delta rocket to launch there Satellites from Guiana Space Centre until Europa III was ready, the french outright refused this, after that ESRO became ESA and Europa III cancel by Ariane 1

SCott, Thanks for this update on the Japanese rockets.

Glad you sighted Ralph Nader in this vid. Check out his interview with Tim Judson (Ralph Nader Radio Hour Episode 523). The basic objections about waste, danger of accidents, ect...misses the real point of his core problem with nukes...it's big corporate monopoly.

Thank you! Very interesting 😀

Delta lives on!!!!!!!

I see no ksp but Juno: New Origains

Thanks scott!

Well the Japaneese rocket development just seems like MOAR BOOOSTERS to me.

Good to see JNO there! I'm watching this while vizzy flies some contraption of mine to the south pole.

Great video and cool history of a space program that's really hitting its stride.

Scott nice recap. One thing that caught my ere was in the engine redesign he stated they revise the plumbing and got rid of a lot of welded joints. Did they replace them with flanged connections??? Hydroformed spools???? Component elimination???? What path did they choose???

Can't hear "H2" without thinking of the insane Kawasaki supercharged motorcycle. A well deserved name for sure

does say something about japan's industry in the 70s that they could just pick up a US rocket design and pretty much build it without any major redesigns. idk if britain could have done something similar at the time

Hi Scott, please make a video on ISRO's space shuttle, they just tested it successfully today.

Thank you for sharing.🙂🙂

Great video, Scott...👍

Next the small rockets, especially the definitely-not-ICBM Epsilon?

Thanks Scott!

how about adding a timeline to these? b great to have a post to click on to review and index into. please?

Scott - What is the purpose of those solid rocket boosters (the little ones at the bottom) pointing the thrust outward? I understand that they're always symmetric so as not to cause a lateral force but it seems like at least a little bit of thrust is lost because it's not entirely vertical?

I think I’m turning Japanese

Thanks Scott.

No mention about that 90 degree turn after SRB separation at the end?

Very interesting 🤔

Nice

Scott, do you think JAXA will develop its own Falcon9-style reusable rocket?

As long as Nissan does not make their space hardware like their CVT transmissions then there shouldn’t be any problems.

Was that a sound barrier breaking at around 1330km/h in the time frame 13:38?

LOL keeping Thor alive, when its nothing like the original anymore

Always enjoy your commentary, you should be on more often. This Chanel has come a long way from the rocket analyst days

IIRC, USA did not want Japan to develop indigenous (solid fuel) ballistic missile technology, and that was the reason why the USA licensed, with some safeguards, the liquid fuel launch vehicle to Japan. For similar reasons, South Korea was discouraged by the USA to develop their missile program.

Thanks for all the info, Scott! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

How about a video revealing how shipping and aircraft and private sailors (and oil platforms ) are warned about re-entry debris. I was surprised to see Starship FT3 ground track crossed South Africa before ending in the Indian Ocean off the coast of my country Australia. Does anyone know where any surviving debris of Starship landed? I would think high altitude passenger jets would be vulnerable. Do they really alter their regular routes when their is a known re-entry occuring or do they just assume the risk of collision is too low to need any concern. What about unscheduled re-entries.

I've enjoyed the video, learned a bit about Japan's space ambitions history, but the engine type acronyms and tech terminology went over my head (I get it, it's not a rocket science lecture).

And Sweden's part of NATO now! Huge for the IKEA/Nintendo partnership! Salud! 🥂

sugoi !

I wonder if they keep on LH2 motors onward. It seems trickier than other liquid propellants and I wonder if there's a good economic reason to keep Hydrolox heritage.

Do you need a special computer to use this simulator or can I put it on my laptop?

The deal with US-Thor seemed also not had being much of a choice but with some incentives from US, avoiding another independant competitor after France/Europe success

Scott, you the MAN!!!!

Thor-buddy! -- Jack O'niell

Himawari, or Sunflower; how poetic.

❤

How can I DM you Scott? If it’s possible I would love to pay you for a flight around the southern San Francisco Bay area. I’ll be in California near you from June 9th until June 15th. It’s the last time I’ll be coming back to the area of my childhood back in the 60’s thru the mid 80’s.

I guess you could say that Thor is able.

👍👍

Note the British Commonwealth developed the Black Brant sounding rocket similarly because the US restricted its offerings for domestic political reasons which eventually led to the current partner-hostile ITARs.

I have a question I'd like insight into. In maritime and space settings, we have lots of potential for vehicles to dock, unock, merge, etc. Who retains sovereignty over what vehicle in these situations? For example, is the ISS (with its several segments and various docked vehicles) a single spacecraft? Who has direct control and sovereignty over the craft? In a more sci-fi context, if I dock my ship to your ship, lock to lock, are they a single entity? What are the precedents for that kind of docking versus something like a shuttle or pinnace landing inside another ship? What is the present state of law regarding maritime versions of the same scenarios? I don't know where to begin to research stuff like this.

One question, this rockets still will be relevant after starship? I mean, in 2 to 5 years, if (IF) spacex reaches the goal of complete reusability, launching above 100 tons in orbit with minimal cost, there's any point to keep doing small rockets? Except of course, for self sufficiency, and military purpoises. In a similar trend, there's any other company trying to be competitive? What ULA or Ariane are doing?

Kewl

Can I ask a question that will undoubtedly make me seem incredibly dumb? Once the engine is going, it's going on full (or potentially throttling down as it approaches Max Q I suppose.) Whilst it obviously takes a while to get up to it's maximum speed, once it's up to that maximum speed, why doesn't the spedometer show that it's speed is constant? It doesn't do that. I was looking at the kmph data on one of those flight videos, and it showed the rocket getting faster and faster as it ascended. Not "maxing out" at some maximum speed, or slowing down (as they might've wanted to slow it a bit as it neared Max Q, as I suggested earlier.) Sorry for being so dumb. Can someone give me the Rockets for Dummies answer, so I can understand it?

Fly safe bros

What happened to the H2O? TFS, GB :)

No big in Japan comment yet? First I guess

哈哈哈哈烟花如此美丽

Nissan or Nissin?

Scott, is your pronunciation of Nissan correct? I've always said it as"knee-sawn"?

What is that sim btw?

Yet one more occasion when Scott Manley teaches me something I didn’t know I needed to know! Thanks Scott, fly safe!

Odd. Large Japanese rockets are usually blurred.

1:40 Is that the new KSP UI? Me like.

私たちの国の液体燃料ロケットについて分かりやすく解説してくれてありがとう！👍

😮nasa copied H-ll and made SLS

@scottmanley is the channel currently sponsoring any kind of contests? This is a very legitimate question!

This is just perfectly fitting, as I am currently developing an up-to-date rocket quartett/happy family card game including all these Japanese heavy lifters, from N-1 to H3. :)

nissan💀

Is Thor a good name for a Norwegian who is born in the Spring? 😉

Fuji Heavy Industries is Subaru

Scott's Japanese pronunciation is pretty good!

OHSUMI sounds like a Donald Trump trademark.

Interesting at 13:40 it reaches 10.0km at exactly one minute :)

Does make me wonder if they have ever had a Rocket on the pad when a high level earthquake hit 🤔

The African Space Program deserves its own video.

BIG TWO MINDED ROCKET

Whoa. The archival footage at 1:45 is so clear and colorful for a 1960's launch! (Yes, I know it's KSP)

The way you mispronounce Nissan is amusingly British

Japan has decent capabilities

8 launches in a few years meanwhile falcon 9 launches 8 times in a month. Give it a year 8 times in a week. It’s mind blowing

The H3 rocket with 2 side boosters launching from Tanegashima “looks just like” Dr Evil’s funny rocket launching from the secret island in Austin Powers… the part where it caused all that confusion and consternation when it appeared on radar ! Scott missed a trick not splicing in that bit of video ! 😅

Does Scott know what ”turning japanese” actually means?

Pencil rockets? So what are the smallest rockets that could get to orbit?

それらわとても大大きいです

Ah, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the rocket company! Oh by the way, I heard the government is looking for a few more tanks and *maybe* a few destroyers and submarines, I wonder who'd sell them those? ...Lastly, you don't happen to know where I could get an AC unit perchance, do you?

Oh sue me

Isn’t it depressing that the UK is the only nation which launched to orbit then gave up? Mind you, we still send aid to China and India…

They should emulate the Godzilla movies and to name the next rocket N Minus One.

🎼"You only live twice." 🎵🎶

Hurray for Japan, hurray for hydrogen! I worry that this switch to methane will be terrible for global warming as the launch market grows exponentially. Sure methane **can** be made using CO2 and H20, but will anyone on earth actually bother to do that in a competitive launch market when natural gas is so cheap?