A Japanese multi-satellite rocket failed to launch on Wednesday (October 12) and has therefore received a self-destruct order, confirmed Japan’s Jaxa space agency, for which it is the first launch failure since 2003.
“The missile cannot safely continue flight because it would pose a hazard if it crashed on the ground,” a Jaxa official told TBS. “So we took measures to avoid such an incident and we sent a signal” to destroy the missile, the official added, without providing details on the origin of the problem. It was the sixth launch of an Epsilon rocket, a solid model Jaxa whose (unmanned) flights began in 2013.
Jaxa on Wednesday paused the live online broadcast of the Epsilon-6 launch from its Uchinoura space center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, without first issuing a statement. The 26 m high and over 95 ton rocket is smaller than Japan’s previous liquid-fuelled model and was the successor to the earlier solid-fuelled rocket launcher “MV”, which was discontinued in 2006 because of high costs.
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