Debut flight of Japan’s new medium-life rocket H3 suffered a failure, causing officials to manually destroy the vehicle mid-air to minimize damage from debris. The rocket took off from the Tanegashima spaceport, but failed to ignite its second stage according to JAXA.
The H3 rocket, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MIH), was carrying the advanced land observation satellite-3 (ALOS 3), which was also destroyed in the process. MIH stated it is investigating the failure along with JAXA and did not provide further comments.
Analyst QuickTake: Japan’s H3 rocket joins ABL Space Systems’ RS 1 rocket , Virgin Obit’s Launcher One , and Landscape’s Zhuque-2 rocket that failed on its maiden voyage. While such occurrences can set back mission timelines, it is a common sight in the industry.
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