Overweight Japanese Rocket Faces Diet (Reuters) July 05
Slim is in for rockets.
So pity Japan's next-generation GX rocket, which is 800 kg (1,800 lb) overweight. ...
Rockets cannot afford excess weight, because only a fraction of their take-off mass is available for a payload, such as a satellite. If the structural weight rises, the payload diminishes, making the rocket uneconomic.
Confidence in Japan's rocket program was badly damaged by two successive, and costly, launch failures in 1998 and 1999. A satellite launched in 2001 also failed to operate as planned.
