TOKYO -- A Japanese H-2A rocket was launched smoothly Monday, carrying test satellites into space as Japan stepped up its bid to enter the commercial satellite launch market, AFP reported. Japan's space authority said the mission was a qualified success as they were not able to immediately confirm if one of the two satellites on the rocket was put into the targeted orbit. "We regard the rocket launch as a success at this point," Shuichiro Yamanouchi, director-general of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), told a press conference shortly after 2:00 pm (0500 GMT). "The launch was successful as far as the rocket bringing the satellites into space is concerned," NASDA spokesman Yoshihiro Nakamura said later. The second prototype of the new generation rocket lifted off at 11:45 am from the national space centre on Tanegashima, an islet off Kyushu Island in southern Japan, trailing a plume of white smoke across a clear blue sky. NASDA has confirmed a Mission Demonstration Satellite-1 (MDS-1) was launched on its planned orbit around 47 minutes after the rocket's blast-off. It will check the performance of commercially available semiconductors in space. The agency has yet to receive signals from the other device, a so-called demonstrator of an atmospheric re-entry system (Dash), which was designed to measure the impact of high temperatures generated in the re-entry stage. "It appears that dash separated from the rocket. We were expecting to receive signals from it immediately after its scheduled launch time from H-2A, around 30 minutes after the lauch of the rocket itself," Nakamura said, "We now expect to receive signals from Dash around 17:30 (0830 GMT). It will take a few hours to analyze the data before we can publically release the result," he said. "We will make a full assessment of the entire mission in a few days, after we confirm the satellites are in their orbits and functioning," Nakamura said. The rocket's launch was originally scheduled for January 31, but was postponed to Sunday to replace parts. Launch was then postponed again for 24 hours due to strong winds in the area. The H-2A prototype made its maiden flight in August, boosting the space agency's plans for a share of the market for commercial satellite launches dominated by the United States and Europe. The launch of a third prototype is planned later this year. Development of the H-2A since 1996 had been delayed by a series of failures of its predecessor, the H-2. In 1998 and 1999, Japanese space authorities tested the H-2 rocket and satellite by remote control but it veered off course after liftoff and a 36-million-dollar satellite was lost in space despite a successful separation from an H-2 rocket. The H2-A, which has cost 10.6 billion yen (80 million dollars), is 57 metres (190 feet) long and weighs 348 tons.