Japanese rocket carrying Taiwan satellite explodes

• AFP, TOKYO

A Japanese space rocket carrying a Taiwanese satellite blasted off yesterday, but was later seen spiraling downward in the distance as the company said the launch attempt had failed.

It was the second attempt by the Japanese start-up Space One to become the country’s first private firm to put a satellite into orbit, after its first try in March ended in a mid-air explosion.

This time, its solid-fuel Kairos rocket had been carrying five satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency and others designed by Japanese students and corporate ventures.

Spectators gathered near the company’s coastal Spaceport Kii launch pad in Japan’s western Wakayama region expressed their disappointment to television cameras.

“I’m so shocked,” one woman said after the firm announced the failure. “I had been hoping it would go into orbit.”

News reports showed the slim, white 18m rocket soaring into the sky.

This time there was no dramatic explosion — unlike in March when the rocket carrying a small government test satellite was ordered to self-destruct due to technical problems just seconds after launch.

“Kairos was launched ... but the rocket terminated its flight after judging that the achievement of its mission would be difficult,” the company said in a statement, adding that the details were under investigation.

“We are very sorry that we could not achieve as far as a final stage of the mission,” Space One president Masakazu Toyoda said at a news conference. “We don’t consider this a failure because we are getting valuable data that will help our pursuit toward a next challenge.”

Space One was founded in 2018 by businesses including Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, construction firm Shimizu and the government-run Development Bank of Japan.

It wants to establish a satellite-launching service to tap into rapidly expanding global demand.