Japan’s New H3 Rocket System Fails Minutes After Launch

NEW DELHI: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency had to take down its new H3 rocket system mid-air due to a technical fault on Tuesday. The incident took place a few minutes into the launch.

The H3 is the latest launch system for the Japanese space agency. Its launch was earlier cancelled about three weeks before owing to a technical glitch in the system. According to reports about the incident, the failure of the second stage of the propulsion system led the ground controls to destroy the vehicle in mid-air.

The payload of the launch vehicle included an Advanced Land Observation Satellite. Its main tasks included data collection and earth observation towards disaster response and map making. It also had an experimental infrared sensor developed by the Defence Ministry of Japan to monitor military activity including missile launches.

The H3 rocket system was launched from the Tanegashima Space Station in Southern Japan. The launch vehicle followed its planned trajectory and the first stage also detached as planned. But the second stage failed to ignite mentioned a statement from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. A kill code to destroy the rocket was sent thereafter as there was no chance for the vehicle to complete its mission.

This is the second failure in the last six months. Previously a smaller Epsilon Series solid-fueled system for launching research-based satellites failed in the month of October. An official investigation regarding the matter has already been started to find the cause of the failure and is expected to give the early findings to the public.

This H3 rocket is Japan’s first new system in more than 22 years. It was developed at a cost of 200 billion yen (USD 1.47 billion) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to replace the H-2A rocket, which is due to retire after its upcoming 50th launch.

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