Japan's new H3 rocket fails during maiden flight
Liftoff of the Asian nation's new flagship launch vehicle occurred as scheduled at 10:37 a.m., Japanese standard time, from the Tanegashima Space Center, located on the island of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. But minutes into its flight, the rocket's second-stage engine failed to ignite, resulting in the launch vehicle to lose velocity.
Controllers at the Tanegashima Space Center then ordered the destruction of the vehicle and its satellite payload, stating "there was no possibility of achieving the mission."
But minutes into its flight, the rocket's second-stage engine failed to ignite, resulting in the launch vehicle to lose velocity.
Controllers at the Tanegashima Space Center then ordered the destruction of the vehicle and its satellite payload, stating "there was no possibility of achieving the mission."
In a statement, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said, "We are confirming the situation."
The cause of the failure was currently unknown, but it comes after Japan on Feb. 17 aborted its first attempt to launch the H3 rocket on its maiden journey as its main engine ignited but its Solid Fuel Rocket Booster did not.
A second launch was planned for Monday but was rescheduled for Tuesday due to weather.
Commentators during the broadcast of Tuesday morning's launch had said liftoff had been a success but later remarked that information they were seeing was indicating that the rocket was losing velocity.
Controllers then said the second-stage engine had failed to ignite and that it was ordered to self-destruct.
"Our destruct command has been submitted to H3 because there was no possibility of achieving the mission," the message said.
Japan and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing the successor to the Asian nation's H-IIA rocket over the past decade with the aim of creating a launch vehicle that is high in flexibility, reliability and cost performance.
Though classified as test flight, the vehicle on Tuesday was carrying the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3, which was to improve Japan's disaster management observation capabilities and was capable of detecting early missile launches.
Source: United Press International
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