On October 12, 2022, an Epsilon-6 rocket launches from the launch pad at the Uchinoura Space Center (USC) in Kimotsuki-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. STR/JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Pictures
Tokyo — Wednesday’s launch of a rocket carrying eight satellites failed shortly after launch, necessitating a self-destruction command. It was the first rocket launch failure in nearly two decades.
The flight of the Epsilon-6 rocket had to be cancelled fewer than seven minutes after launch from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima, according to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency President Hiroshi Yamakawa in an online news conference.
“We sincerely regret for falling short of the expectations” of local officials and everyone engaged in the creation of the satellites, Yamakawa said, promising to aid in the probe into the failure’s cause.
Officials from JAXA stated that the agency delivered a self-destruction signal after concluding that the rocket could not fly safely and enter the intended orbit. The rocket and its payloads are thought to have crashed into the ocean east of the Philippines, according to JAXA.
On October 12, 2022, an Epsilon-6 rocket launches from the Uchinoura Space Center (USC) in Kimotsuki-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. STR/JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Pictures
The agency stated that the cause of the failure was still being investigated.
The Epsilon rocket was carrying eight payloads, two of which were created by a private corporation situated in Fukuoka, another prefecture in the south. It was the first time an Epsilon rocket carried payloads that were commercially developed.
Yasuhiro Uno, who directed the Epsilon-6 launch, recognized that the failure could have future implications for Epsilon’s launch business. A commercial launch under an upgraded version, Epsilon-S, is planned for a Vietnamese satellite next year by the Japanese company IHI Aerospace.
Uno stated, “Our top priority is to investigate the cause and take decisive action.”
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The 95.6-ton, 85-foot-long solid-fuel Epsilon-6 rocket is the final version before JAXA develops the Epsilon-S variant. The Epsilon-6 is designed for a compact launch after five upgrades since the beginning of the 2010s, as JAXA seeks to develop a commercial satellite launch business.
Wednesday’s failure shattered the Epsilon series’ success records since the launch of the original version in 2013. It was also a first for JAXA since the failure of its H2A rocket in 2003.
The launch, originally scheduled for last Friday, had been delayed due to the location of a positioning satellite in space.