TOKYO, Japan: This week, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said that in an increasingly competitive market dominated by Space X, they aim to forge a profitable launch business with their new H3 rocket, which made its first successful flight last month.

The two sides have been developing the H3 as a successor to the soon-to-retire current mainstay H-2A, which had a 98 percent success rate but has a high launch cost making it less competitive.

We plan to have at least six launches per year to meet the rapidly growing demand for communication, observation, and security satellites, said Mayuki Niitsu, MHI's H3 rocket project manager.

"Today, the commercial market has a big demand for rockets, and there is a substantial shortage of rockets. Space X is virtually dominating the market right now, but I believe there are high expectations of our role as an alternative," he said.

On February 17, an H3 rocket successfully reached orbit and released two small observation satellites following a failed debut launch last year.

To make the rocket commercially viable, Mitsubishi will eventually produce the H3 and manage launches from JAXA.

To be globally competitive, the H3 can carry larger payloads than the H-2A at about half the launch cost, or some 5 billion yen.

However, MHI officials said that this is still considered expensive, so they hope to become more cost-competitive after about a dozen launches.

"There are other ways to be competitive, for example, by providing flexible launch schedules and being better at meeting clients' needs," Niitsu said.