Japan’s Space One Kairos rocket fails in second attempt, minutes after liftoff

Shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, Japan’s Space One ended the flight of its small rocket, the Kairos, ending its second effort in nine months to become the nation’s first firm to launch a satellite into space.

Even though the government wants to promote the local space sector and aims to launch 30 rockets a year by the early 2030s, this is the latest in a string of recent setbacks for Japanese rocket development.

Authorities are pushing to make Japan Asia’s space transportation hub in what they hope will be an 8 trillion yen ($52 billion) space industry.

The second Kairos flight, which lasted only about 10 minutes, was canceled because “achieving its mission would be difficult,” Space One stated in an email to media.

Japan’s Space One ended the mission of its Kairos tiny rocket shortly after liftoff on Wednesday, marking the end of its second effort in nine months to become the country’s first business to launch a satellite into Space.

It is the latest in a string of recent losses for Japanese rocket development, despite the government’s efforts to strengthen the domestic space industry, which aims to launch 30 rockets per year by the early 2030s.

Authorities are working to establish Japan as Asia’s space transportation hub, with the goal of creating an 8 trillion yen ($52 billion) space sector.

The second Kairos flight, which lasted only about 10 minutes, was canceled because “achieving its mission would be difficult,” Space One stated in an email to media.

Space One is investigating the incident and will host a press conference at 2:30 p.m. local time, the company said.

Tokyo-based Space One was founded in 2018 by Canon Electronics, IHI’s aerospace unit, construction firm Shimizu and a state-backed bank, with the goal of launching 20 small rockets a year by 2029 to capture growing satellite launch demand.

At its debut flight in March, Kairos, carrying a Japanese government satellite, exploded five seconds after launch.

Inappropriate flight settings triggered the rocket’s autonomous self-destruct system even though no issues were found in its hardware, Space One later said.

A lack of domestic launch options has seen emerging Japanese space startups such as radar satellite maker iQPS and debris mitigator Astroscale tapping on SpaceX’s rideshare missions or leading small rocket provider Rocket Lab .

Recent Japanese rocket projects have also faced other setbacks.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has postponed the first flight of the new solid-fuel launcher Epsilon S after the engine combustion test failed for the second time last month.

JAXA’s larger liquid-propellant rocket H3 also failed its first launch in March 2023, but has completed three missions this year, earning orders from clients like French satellite firm Eutelsat.

under 2019, Interstellar Technologies became the first Japanese company to launch a rocket into space without a satellite payload, but their orbital launcher Zero is still under development.