ANJO, central Japan -- In the Japanese prefecture of Aichi, primarily an agricultural region nestled between the commercial centers of Tokyo and Osaka, a five-story workshop towers over the rice paddies. The factory, belonging to Ise Industry, produces aluminum pipes for liquid oxygen and hydrogen used to blast Japan's next-generation space rocket, the H3 Launch Vehicle, into space.
The H3's test launch, which was to take place on Thursday but has been delayed until Saturday due to bad weather, is the second attempt after a failed launch a year ago that shook Japan's manufacturing industry to its core.
