Second Kairos launch fails

WASHINGTON — The second flight of a Japanese small launch vehicle failed when the vehicle lost control a couple minutes after its Dec. 17 liftoff.

The Kairos rocket lifted off from Spaceport Kii, a launch site in southern Honshu, at 9 p.m. Eastern. Weather conditions postponed launch attempts on Dec. 13 and 14.

The solid-fuel rocket swiftly ascended from the pad and appeared to be flying normally in the initial phases of the flight. However, video of the launch showed that the vehicle appeared to lose attitude control about two minutes after liftoff, tumbling and creating a corkscrew contrail.

Space One, the company that developed Kairos, acknowledged in a statement that the launch failed, but provided few details about what happened. “We apologize to our customers and those involved in the launch for the failure to achieve the mission to the end, and we are very sorry that we did not meet the expectations of everyone who supported us,” the company said in a translated Japanese statement, adding that it would investigate the cause “as soon as possible” and try again.

According to local news reports, Space One officials said several hours after the launch that they believe a problem with the nozzle of the first stage or its attitude control system caused the failure.

The failure came nine months after the first flight of Kairos. On that launch, the rocket exploded seconds after liftoff. Space One later stated that the rocket’s autonomous flight termination system was triggered by underperformance of the rocket’s first stage motor.

This launch was carrying five small satellites from the Taiwan Space Agency and Japanese companies Lagrapo, Space Cubics and Terra Space, as well as a customer that Space One said wished to remain anonymous.

Space One, whose investors include Canon and IHI Aerospace, is seeking to enter the small launch market with Kairos. The rocket, with three solid-fuel stages and a liquid-propellant kick stage, is designed to place up to 150 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbits and 250 kilograms into a 500-kilometer orbit at an inclination of 33 degrees.

The Kairos failure comes weeks after a setback for another Japanese small launch vehicle. A solid rocket motor developed for the Epsilon S rocket exploded during a Nov. 25 static-fire test at a facility operated by the Japanese space agency JAXA. That explosion took place 49 seconds into a planned two-minute burn.

A similar motor exploded in a July 2023 test. JAXA, which is working with IHI Aerospace on Epsilon S, acknowledged after the second failure that the first launch of the Epsilon S, an upgraded version of the Epsilon rocket, would not take place by the end of March 2025 as previously planned.