Japan’s Space One ended the flight of its Kairos small rocket shortly after its launch on Wednesday. This incident marked the company’s second failure to deliver a satellite into space in nine months.
This termination adds to recent challenges in Japanese rocket development despite government efforts to enhance the domestic space industry. Japan aims for 30 rocket launches annually by the early 2030s and seeks to become Asia’s leading space transportation hub, targeting a $52 billion space industry.
According to Space One, the Kairos rocket’s flight, lasting about 10 minutes, was halted because completing its mission seemed unlikely. The Wakayama prefecture government broadcasts showed the 18-meter solid-propellant rocket launching from Spaceport Kii in western Japan at 11:00 am. However, it soon lost stability in its ascent.
🚨🇯🇵JAPANESE STARTUP SPACE ONE FACES SECOND ROCKET FAILURE
Space One's Kairos No. 2 rocket failed midflight, marking its second consecutive setback. After a successful first-stage separation, the rocket was "discontinued" 20 minutes post-launch. The payload included satellites… pic.twitter.com/M0dsKNHMbm
— Info Room (@InfoR00M) December 18, 2024The rocket carried five small satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency, intended for a sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometres above Earth.
Space One is examining the failure and plans a press conference at 2:30 pm local time.
During its initial launch in March, the Kairos rocket, carrying a Japanese government satellite, exploded five seconds after takeoff. This mishap was due to inappropriate flight settings, activating the rocket’s self-destruct system despite no hardware issues.
The scarcity of domestic launch options has driven Japanese space startups like iQPS and Astroscale to use SpaceX’s rideshare missions or services from leading small rocket provider Rocket Lab.
Other Japanese rocket projects have also encountered difficulties. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) delayed the first flight of its new Epsilon S solid-fuel launcher after a failed engine combustion test last month.
