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.
Observers say it is a significant setback for Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa).
The government called the test failure “extremely regrettable”.
According to the BBC, 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 rocket into space with a monitoring satellite on board. The ALOS-3 system is capable of detecting North Korean missile launches.
But Jaxa said soon after launch, engineers were forced to send a self-destruct prompt to the H3 after it experienced “reduced velocity” in the second stage of its launch.
