A Japanese start-up’s third attempt to put a satellite in orbit failed yesterday after its rocket spiraled back to Earth shortly after takeoff.
Space One, hoping to become the first private Japanese firm to put a satellite in space, said that what went wrong was “under investigation.”
TV footage showed the Kairos rocket blasting off from the launch site in the coastal Wakayama region of western Japan at 11:10am into the blue sky.
Photo: AFP
However, shortly afterward, the slim, white 18m rocket appeared to run out of power and head back down in a spin.
“We determined that mission success was difficult and implemented flight termination measures,” Tokyo-based Space One wrote on social media platform X.
It was unclear where it landed.
The rocket was carrying several satellites including one for a high school in Tokyo, the firm said.
The company’s first launch attempt ended in spectacular failure in March 2024 when the solid-fuel rocket exploded seconds after liftoff.
A second try started off better only for the rocket to suddenly spiral downward after engineers terminated the operation because of a technical problem.
The latest launch had been slated to happen on Wednesday, only to be canceled due to another glitch just 28.9 seconds before liftoff.
Companies such as Space One want to offer cheaper and more frequent opportunities for space exploration than governments.
The start-up is hoping to establish a satellite-launching service to tap into expanding global demand — emulating Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has contracts with NASA and the Pentagon.
Space One was founded in 2018 by businesses including Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, construction firm Shimizu and the Japanese government-run Development Bank of Japan.
The national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is also on a mission to become a major player for satellite launches.
JAXA’s next-generation H3 launch system had experienced multiple failed takeoff attempts before a successful blast off in February 2024.
However, in December last year, Japan’s flagship H3 rocket failed to launch a geolocation satellite into orbit due to engine failure.
In 2024, JAXA landed an uncrewed probe on the moon — albeit at a crooked angle — making it just the fifth country to achieve a “soft landing.”
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its landing precision, nonetheless intermittently sent back signals for many months.
Japan’s ispace last year failed in its attempt to become only the third private firm — and the first outside the US — to achieve a controlled arrival on the moon.
Contact with the ispace’s uncrewed Resilience craft was lost as the probe made its final descent onto the lunar surface and was believed to have crash landed.
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