On Wednesday, a small, solid-fuel rocket made by Japan’s Space One exploded seconds into its inaugural flight as the firm tried to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit. The 18m-tall rocket was carrying an experimental government satellite that could have temporarily replaced intelligence satellites in orbit if they went offline. The explosion left a large cloud of smoke, a fire, and rocket fragments near the launch pad on the tip of the mountainous Kii peninsula in western Japan, which was visible on local media livestreams. No one was injured, and the flames were sprayed with firefighting water. The company said it “terminated the mission” afterward and would investigate the cause of the failure.
Space One, established in 2018 with backing from Canon Electronics, the aerospace engineering unit of IHI, construction firm Shimizu, and two of Japan’s biggest banks, has high hopes for its Kairos rocket. Its president, Masakazu Toyoda, says the company wants to offer “space courier services” to domestic and international clients to launch 20 rockets annually by the late 2020s.
The rocket’s first stage blew up five seconds after launch, sending debris across the Spaceport Kii grounds and into a nearby river. According to Space One, the second and third stages remained intact, and the launch pad and other critical infrastructure escaped damage. The company’s executive said the company is investigating what caused the disaster.
The failure of the Kairos rocket is a setback for Space One and the rocket industry in Japan, where government and investors are ramping up support for the sector amid a national security buildup and skyrocketing demand for commercial satellites. It also comes as Japan faces increasing competition from China and Russia in the global race to reach space.
Japan’s rocket developers are rushing to build cheaper vehicles to exploit the booming market. Government and private firms alike are seeking ways to cut costs for missions that cost millions of dollars per shot.
The failure of the Kairos rocket shows how challenging it can be to develop an entirely new spacecraft. The explosion came just weeks after Japan’s space agency JAXA successfully soft-landed its latest lunar probe on the moon’s surface. Despite the recent setbacks, many see a strong future for the country’s space industry. The explosion of the Kairos rocket underscores that even the most sophisticated spacecraft can go wrong at times and that more work is needed to make it safer and more reliable.