Japan’s Space One Kairos rocket exploded Wednesday during its first-ever launch.
Kairos was supposed to be the first rocket launched by a Japanese company to deliver its payload, a fallback government intelligence satellite, into Earth’s orbit, according to Reuters. Just seconds after lifting off at 11:01 am local-time, the rocket burst alive in a fiery explosion, fragments spewing into the launch site’s surrounding mountains of the Kii peninsula in western Japan, as seen from multiple angles shared across social media.
🇯🇵🚨‼️ Space One rocket explodes soon after launch in Japan!
First attempt with private Kairos rocket was intended to test viability of homegrown commercial launch business pic.twitter.com/pY1xT5cgMx
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) March 13, 2024
Kairos, a small, solid-fuel rocket made by Japan’s Space One, exploded shortly after its inaugural launch, as the firm tried to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit https://t.co/bVBBWkJjQi pic.twitter.com/zC2guJ4KC1
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 13, 2024
Japanese private space company Space One’s Kairos-1 rocket faced an anomaly on its maiden flight, exploding just seconds after lifting off.
The launch complex seems to be intact.pic.twitter.com/pCMR4qOpNR
— Vikranth Jonna (@VikranthJonna) March 13, 2024
In some of the videos you can clearly hear alarm bells ringing as everything seems to go wrong. The 18-meter (59 ft) solid-fuel was apparently “interrupted” during its launch. No further information was shared on what caused the explosion, only that the situation is currently being investigated.
Japan’s Tokyo-based Space One President Masakazu Toyoda answers questions during a press conference regarding the launch failure of their first small satellite rocket Kairos, in Nachikatsuura Town, Wakayama Prefecture on March 13, 2024. (Photo by STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)
Japan’s Tokyo-based Space One President Masakazu Toyoda (C) and others bow their heads during a press conference regarding the launch failure of their first small satellite rocket Kairos, in Nachikatsuura Town, Wakayama Prefecture on March 13, 2024. (Photo by STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)
No injuries or deaths were reported as a result of the mishap. Fires that broke out from the wreckage were all extinguished promptly, local Gov. Shuhei Kishimoto told reporters. (RELATED: Astronomers Have One Person To Blame For Tearing Blood-Red ‘Atmospheric Holes’ In The Sky, Apparently)
This is not the first issue to occur with the launch of the intelligence satellite. Space One was set to launch Kairos on Saturday but a ship entered a restricted area off the nearby coast, prompting a postponement of Monday’s botched attempt. The company is still hoping to be able to continue its development as a “space courier service” for domestic and international clientele, hoping to launch as many as 20 rockets by the latter half of the 2020s.