Kairos, a small, solid-fuel rocket made by Japan’s Space One, exploded just seconds into its inaugural launch today as the firm tried to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit.
The setback for Space One and the rocket industry in Japan comes as the government and investors ramp up support for the sector amid a national security build-up and huge demand for commercial satellites.
The 18-metre (59ft) rocket exploded five seconds after lifting off, leaving behind a large cloud of smoke, a fire, and fragments of the rocket near the launch pad on the tip of mountainous Kii peninsula in western Japan.
“The rocket terminated the flight after judging that the achievement of its mission would be difficult,” company president Masakazu Toyoda said.
Space One did not specify what triggered self-destruction after the first-stage engine ignited – or when the company would launch the next Kairos – only pledging an investigation into the explosion.
The company said that the launch is highly automated, requiring only about a dozen ground staff, and that the rocket self-destructs when it detects errors in its flight path, speed or control system that could cause a crash that endangers people on the ground.
“We don’t use the world ‘failure’, because each trial brings us … new data and experience for another challenge,” Mr Toyoda told a news conference.
Kairos carried an experimental government satellite that can temporarily replace intelligence satellites in orbit if they fall offline.
Space One had planned the launch for Saturday but postponed it after a ship entered the nearby restricted sea area.
Although Japan is a relatively small player in the space race, the nation’s rocket developers are scrambling to build cheaper vehicles to capture booming demand for satellite launches from its government and from global clients.
Tokyo-based Space One was established in 2018 by a consortium of Japanese companies.
Space One wants to offer “space courier services” to domestic and international clients, aiming to launch 20 rockets a year by the late 2020s, Mr Toyoda has said.
