Space: March 15, 2002

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Japan has found the cause of the failure of its H-IIA launcher on 4 Feb. A technician working for NEC Toshiba mis-copied an assembly drawing, keeping the signal to separate the satellite from the payload housing from reaching the proper equipment. Japan is happy that the flaw was a human error (despite the $4.4 million spacecraft that was lost) and has committed to using the H-IIA to launch its new weather and air traffic control satellite.--Stephen V Cole