OREANDA-NEWS The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is working on plans to create a partially reusable space rocket. This is reported by SpaceNews.

A carrier with a returnable first stage running on methane or hydrogen will be developed with the participation of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).

Japan hopes to use the new rocket to reduce the cost of a kilogram of payload launched into low Earth orbit by about half (compared to the H3 carrier).

In February, the first launch of the newest Japanese heavy rocket H3 ended in failure, because the carrier could not get off the ground.