Japanese company rocket explodes shortly after launch – 03/13/2024 – Science

A rocket from a private company exploded this Wednesday (13) just seconds after launch in western Japan, representing a huge failure in the company’s attempt to put a satellite into orbit.

The Space One start-up’s mission aimed to take a Japanese government satellite into orbit, something unprecedented for the country’s private aerospace industry.

The 18-meter-tall Kairos rocket took off at 11:01 am (11:01 pm Brasília, Tuesday) from the Space One launch center on the Kii peninsula, a mountainous and forested area in Wakayama prefecture.

A few seconds after takeoff, however, the rocket turned into a ball of fire and thick smoke enveloped the installation, with debris from the device falling down the slopes of the region’s hills, images broadcast live showed.

Space One said in a statement that it had decided to “cancel the flight” and that it had opened an investigation into what happened.

“We want to accept this result with a vision of the future and begin our next challenge,” the company’s president, Masakazu Toyoda, told reporters. He insisted that Space One does not use the word failure.

The company wants to “contribute to the expansion of space services” with successful satellite launches with its rockets, he added.

Burning debris fell in the surrounding area, where the “sprinklers” were activated, a scene watched by hundreds of spectators who arrived at the public observation areas.

Private companies like Space One play an increasingly important role in global space exploration.

In February, a Houston company landed the first American spacecraft on the Moon in more than 50 years, and NASA increasingly depends on rockets made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

But there are many failures. Last year, another Japanese start-up, ispace, tried in vain to become the first private company to land on the Moon.

The company said it lost contact with its ship in what it called a forced landing.