This was very much a success. We should get bonus points

Nasda spokesman Yorihiko Kikuyama

Forty minutes later, the craft deployed a test satellite, crowning a mission described by a National Space Development Agency (Nasda) spokesman as "very much a success".

The H-2A rocket is intended to establish a Japanese presence in the commercial satellite launch market, now dominated by the United States and Europe, but it has suffered repeated technical problems.

Relieved applause

Live pictures broadcast on Japanese television showed relieved Nasda personnel break into restrained applause shortly after the launch.

H-2A facts

Ht - 53 metres (174 feet) Wt - 285 tonnes Cost - $71m Payload - 4 tonnes

Commentary described the engines and navigational systems as running smoothly as the rocket climbed towards its orbit 270 km (167 miles) above the Earth.

About half-way up and beyond the Earth's atmosphere, the heat deflecting fairing protecting the payload compartment separated from the craft, followed shortly after by the first-stage engine.

A Nasda official said the payload and second stage engine would remain in orbit for about a year until they burned up on re-entering the atmosphere.

The launch had been delayed several times - a last-minute hitch with loading rocket fuel put back the schedule by several hours on Wednesday.

Last week, a problem with a valve in one of the rocket's engines was exacerbated by the arrival of Typhoon Pabuk, which prevented investigators from flying to the launch site from the mainland.

Troubled project

Nasda was set up in 1969 and launched Japan's first totally self-developed rocket, the H-2, in 1994.

The last H-2 was destroyed after launch

But the H-2 programme was cancelled in 1999 after the first-stage engine of the rocket cut out too early and the rocket was deliberately destroyed along with its $83m (�57m) satellite payload.

Six other H-2s were launched and both the second and sixth launch missions had problems inserting their satellite payloads into correct orbits.

Experience gained on the H-2 programme has been incorporated into the H-2A, intended as a competitor to Europe's Ariane system.

The first H-2A was due to fly in February 2001, but there were problems with the rocket's pipes and plating, and the launch was rescheduled for August.

Nasda is optimistic about the H-2A's future, despite the cancellation in 2000 by Hughes Space and Communications International of a $710m (�489m) order for 10 H-2As.

The H-2A is designed specifically for commercial launches and costs half as much as its predecessor. It can put a four-tonne payload into orbit, and Nasda hopes that this will be extended to a 7.5 tonne capacity within two years.

The 53-metre high rocket is built using 20% fewer parts than its predecessor, which makes it cheaper, and less likely to go wrong.