Japan’s New Space Rocket Fails On Debut Flight

OAN Brooke Mallory
UPDATED 4:53 PM PT – Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Japan’s first-ever medium-lift rocket, the Japan-made Y-Motion, was shot down on Tuesday following its inaugural flight. Its second-stage engine didn’t ignite according to plan.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said they could not resist manually demolishing their H3 spacecraft.

Japanese attempts to reduce costs for space access and compete against SpaceX, Elon Musk and SpaceX ended in failure. Experts are now calling for an investigation. The news comes three weeks after the previous launch had to be cancelled due to internal problems.

H3 was one of over 20 new rocket series developed by the country. It was successfully launched and broadcast live from Tanegashima’s spaceport.

After liftoff, it took only fourteen minutes for a command to send a command to demolish the $1.47 trillion dollar craft. Officials from JAXA apologized for the unsuccessful launch.

Yasuhiro Fumoto, director of Yasuhiro Spacecraft explained that issues began in the second stage as the spacecraft’s payload was dropped into the sea off the east coast of the Philippines. Journalists and reporters were assured by him that the rocket was unsafe, and that he had to destroy it.

A H3 craft was holding an “Advanced Land Observation Satellite” ALOS, which collects data both for disaster response and mapmaking. There is also an experimental Infrared Sensor developed by Defense Ministry and responsible for monitoring missile launches and military operations.

Hirotaka Watanabe of Osaka University is known as an expert in the field of space policy and made some comments.

“This will have a serious impact on Japan’s future space policy, space business, and technological competitiveness,” Watanabe said.

The latest launch resulted in no injuries or damage to humans.

A replacement plan is currently not available for the ALOS’s older generation.

Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of the Japanese Embassy in Tokyo, stated to reporters that he and his team need to investigate more to understand how they can improve their launch.