Isao Uchida, head of the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), has tendered his resignation and will leave the post on Friday, Hirofumi Nakasone, the state minister for science and technology, said.

"Mr. Uchida has offered to resign as he wished that the agency would pursue space development under a new line-up at the start of a new phase," Nakasone told a news conference.

"We will find his replacement as soon as possible."

Japanese media said Uchida was stepping down to take the responsibility for the H-2 accident.

Eiji Sogame, the agency's director for rocket development, will also leave the post on Friday, the minister said.

NASDA, established in 1969, has led the development of home-grown space technology but it has suffered a series of high-profile launch failures.

A 24-billion-yen H-2 rocket and satellite had to be exploded in mid-air when the rocket's main engine failed last November.

The spectacular failure forced NASDA to postpone the launch of the next-generation H-2-A rocket from last month to between April 2000 and March 2001.

The November explosion was the second successive failure in the H-2 rocket project after a 36-million-dollar satellite was lost in space despite a successful separation from the rocket in February 1998.

The H-2 accident already led to the resignation of Toshio Okazaki, vice state minister of science and technology, last November.

Okazaki also took the blame for Japan's worst nuclear accident at a uranium processing plant at Tokaimura last September.

The radioactive leak killed two plant workers, exposed at least 439 people to radiation and forced 320,000 to shelter indoors for more than a day.

Three plant workers used steel buckets to pour an excessive amount of uranium into a precipitation tank, a process which must be mechanically followed via a reservoir tank. The operation set off a critical reaction.

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