The first of its kind in Japan nearly two decades ago

Missile launch failure deals a blow to Japan's space agency

• The Epsilon missile has not experienced launch failures before.

  Reuters

• A self-destruct message was sent to the missile.

  AFP

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The Japanese space agency announced that the launch of a Japanese rocket carrying satellites into orbit, to demonstrate new technologies, failed after it exploded yesterday due to a positioning problem.

It is Japan's first launch failure in nearly two decades, and the only failure to launch a solid-fueled Epsilon missile, after five successful missions since its launch in 2013.

The unmanned spacecraft was launched from the Oshinura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture in the south of the country.

The launch was broadcast live by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Yasuhiro Funo of JAXA, who took over the project, said a self-destruct signal was sent to the missile less than 10 minutes later due to "misplacements."

Live broadcasts were cut, and presenters said there was a problem with the launch.

And Fono explained, in a press conference, that a technical problem was detected before the third and final stage of the launch, when the last propulsion device was about to ignite.

"He ordered us to destroy the missile, because if we can't send it into the orbit we planned for, we don't know where it's going," he added, leading to safety concerns about where it could fall.

He added that after the mission was aborted, the missile parts were supposed to have fallen into the sea east of the Philippines.

"The missile cannot continue its journey safely because of the danger it may pose if it falls to the ground," an agency official told Japan's TBS television network.

"Therefore, we took measures to avoid an accident of this kind, and we sent a signal to destroy the missile," he added, without giving details of the cause of the problem.

new technologies

Japan's last recorded failed launch of a missile carrying a pair of spy satellites to monitor North Korea was in 2003. That was the last time JAXA sent an order to destroy a missile in 1999.

The Epsilon 6 rocket, which is 26 meters long, was carrying a box-shaped satellite that was supposed to orbit the Earth for at least a year for experiments, as well as eight small satellites.

New technologies are designed by researchers and private companies to be tested in space as part of the agency's third pilot program for innovative satellite technology.

"Epsilon is a solid-fuel rocket designed to lower the threshold for access to space (...) and usher in an era when everyone can use space effectively," the Japanese agency said in a statement.

It is smaller than the previous liquid-fueled model, and it is a successor to the solid-fuel missile "M-5", which was discontinued in 2006 due to its high cost.

JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa expressed his apologies for the failure of the operation.

He said the agency "deeply regrets that we were unable to meet the expectations of the Japanese people."

"We will do our best to find out the cause, and we will take measures" to prevent a recurrence of such an accident, Yamakawa added.

The only failure to launch the solid-fueled Epsilon missile after five successful missions since its launch in 2013.

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