Posted: Tue, Feb 5, 2002, 7:12 AM ET (1212 GMT)
The Japanese space agency NASDA confirmed Monday that one of the payloads carried on an H-2A rocket launched Sunday night failed to separate from the booster and is likely a total failure. Controllers were unable to establish communications with the Demonstrator of Atmospheric Reentry System with Hyper Velocity (DASH) spacecraft after the launch, and officials now believe DASH failed to separate from the booster as planned. DASH was intended to reenter to test hypervelocity reentry technologies. The Mission Demonstration test Satellite-1 (MDS-1), the other major payload on the rocket, did separate from the booster and appears to be operating normally. NASDA officials still consider the launch a success despite the DASH failure.

Related Links:

•  NASDA post-launch press release
•  Japan Times article
•  Mainchi Daily News article
•  AP article