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By Kantaro Komiya Free Mp3 Download
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Space One’s small solid-fuel Kairos rocket exploded on Wednesday shortly after its maiden launch as the company sought to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite into orbit.
The 18-meter (59-foot) four-stage solid-fuel rocket exploded seconds after liftoff just after 11:01 a.m. (02:01 GMT), leaving behind a loud sound of smoke, a fire, fragments of rocket and fire water splash near the launch pad, visible on local media live streaming of the launch at the tip of the mountainous Kii Peninsula in western Japan.
Space One said the flight was “aborted” after launch and was investigating the situation. There was no immediate indication of what caused the explosion, nor whether there were any injuries. There are typically no people on the pads nearby during a launch. Space One said the launch is highly automated and requires about a dozen personnel at the ground control center.
Kairos carried an experimental government satellite that can temporarily replace orbiting intelligence satellites if they fall offline.
Space One had scheduled the launch for Saturday but postponed it after a ship entered the nearby restricted sea zone.
Although Japan is a relatively small player in the space race, the country’s rocket developers are rushing to build cheaper vehicles to capture growing demand for satellite launches from the government and global customers.
Space One, based in Tokyo, was founded in 2018 by a consortium of Japanese companies: Canon Electronics, IHI’s aerospace engineering unit, construction firm Shimizu and the state-backed Japan Development Bank. Two of Japan’s largest banks, Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:) and Mizuho, also own minority stakes.
Canon Electronics shares fell more than 9% after Wednesday’s launch failure.
Space One wants to offer “space courier services” to domestic and international customers, aiming to launch 20 rockets a year by the end of the 2020s, its president Masakazu Toyoda said. Although the company delayed Kairos’ inaugural launch window four times, it said orders for the second and third planned voyages were filled, including from an overseas customer.
Space One does not disclose launch costs for Kairos, but company executive Kozo Abe said it is “quite competitive” against American rival Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab has launched more than 40 small Electron rockets from New Zealand since 2017 at about $7 million per flight. Several Japanese companies have used Electron for their missions, including radar satellite makers iQPS and Synspective and orbital debris removal startup Astroscale.
Last month, the state-funded Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched its new, cost-effective flagship rocket, the H3. JAXA completed a historic Moon landing this year, and the H3 is expected to carry approximately 20 satellites and probes into space by 2030.
In 2019, Interstellar Technologies conducted the first launch of a privately developed rocket in Japan with its MOMO series, albeit without a full-scale satellite payload.
In collaboration with the United States, Japan is seeking to revitalize its domestic aerospace industry to counter the technological and military rivalry of China and Russia.
Last year the government promised “comprehensive” support for space startups with technologies crucial to national security, as it sought to build satellite constellations to boost intelligence capabilities.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Friday it had struck a deal with Space One to increase the payload of its rockets by testing fuel-efficient methane engines.