Kawasaki Delivers Fairing for H-IIA F14 Launch Vehicle

Tokyo. – Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has shipped a payload fairing*1 for the H-IIA No.14 (H-IIA F14) launch vehicle to the Tanegashima Space Center. Kawasaki designed and manufactured the launch vehicle at its Gifu Works before assembling and shipping it from its Harima Works. The fairing will next be installed for its upcoming launch this winter.

The fairing is 4 m in diameter with a single cover (4S), into which a large satellite will be installed. The fairing is large enough for satellites like those carried by the U.S. space shuttle or the European Ariane V. The H-IIA F14 launch vehicle will carry the Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS*2) into space.

Kawasaki has developed and manufactured various types of payload fairings for H-IIA launch vehicles that can meet a wide range of launch needs including the launch of a large satellite or the simultaneous launch of two satellites.

*1: A payload fairing is a cover installed at the tip of a launch vehicle to protect the satellite from aerodynamic heating, acoustic noise and vibration during liftoff. After the launch vehicle leaves the earth’s atmosphere, the fairing splits in two and is jettisoned, allowing the satellite to separate from the launch vehicle.

*2: WINDS is a satellite developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It is responsible for the demonstration of the validity and usefulness of technologies related to large-capacity data communications, which is to promote the use of satellites in such fields as Internet communications, education, medicine, disaster measures and Intelligent Transport Systems.