Japan forced to destroy flagship H3 rocket in failed launch

[Gordon_R]

Japan forced to destroy flagship H3 rocket in failed launch

The rocket's failure to launch is a significant blow to the country's space plans.

www.bbc.com

Japan was forced to blow up its new rocket during a failed launch on Tuesday, setting back efforts to crack a market led by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Its space agency had to send a self-destruct command to the H3 rocket when its second-stage engine failed minutes after lift-off.

The H3 rocket is the first medium-lift rocket designed by Japan in three decades.

It has been presented as a cheaper alternative to SpaceX's Falcon 9 for launching commercial and government satellites into Earth's orbit.

On Tuesday, engineers had aimed to send the 57m (187ft) rocket into space with a monitoring satellite on board. The ALOS-3 system is capable of detecting North Korean missile launches.

Japan had presented the H3 as a viable commercial alternative to the Falcon 9 rocket because the H3 ran on a lower-cost engine with 3D-printed parts.

Had the mission succeeded, JAXA said it had planned to launch the H3 around six times a year for the next two decades.

 

[grok]

I imagine some harakiri's incoming?

 

[airborne]

How much did that rocket cost?

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

Space x blue prints are for sale maybe they need it