Japan was forced to blow up its new rocket during a disastrous launch on Tuesday In an effort to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX
A few minutes after takeoff, the H3 rocket’s second-stage engine failed, necessitating the space agency to send a self-destruct command.
It is a major setback for Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, according to observers (Jaxa).
The test failure was deemed “very regretful” by the authorities.
The H3 rocket is Japan’s first medium-lift rocket in thirty years.
It has been touted as a less expensive option to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for putting government and commercial satellites into orbit.
Engineers planned to launch the 57-meter (187-foot) rocket into space on Tuesday with a monitoring satellite on board. The North Korean missile launch can be detected by the ALOS-3 system.
Jaxa, however, claimed that soon after launch, engineers were compelled to instruct the H3 to self-destruct after it encountered “reduced velocity” in the second stage of its launch.