Japan aborts its space mission few minutes after launch through self-destruction command

Asia-Pacific, News October 13, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Japan’s space agency reported on October 12, 2022, that its Epsilon-6 rocket failed to attain the right position in the orbit. The mission was aborted seven minutes after the launch and the rocket was destroyed through self-destruction command.

Epsilon-6 space mission was the country’s first independent commercial space mission in almost 20 years. The unmanned rocket took off from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima. It was carrying eight micro-satellites to be placed into the earth’s orbit. The flight was troubled from the start. Earlier on October 8, the flight was delayed for four days following some technical difficulties.

President of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hiroshi Yamakawa attended a news conference following the failure of Epsilon-6. He stated that “We deeply apologize for our failure to live up to the expectations.” Yamakawa pledged to assist in the investigation to find out the cause of the failure.

Japan’s solid-fuel Epsilon rocket made its first debut in 2013 after the country’s previous liquid-fueled M-5 rocket was retired in 2006, due to its high cost. The 26 meters tall solid-fuel Epsilon-6 rocket weighed around 95.6 tonnes. JAXA now plans to develop a lighter variant of the Epsilon rockets names Epsilon-S.

Among the payload were two privately owned satellites developed by a Japanese company Fukuoka. It was the first time that an Epsilon rocket was carrying a commercially developed payload into space.

JAXA is working on developing new commercially viable and reusable rockets to step into the growing market of commercial space flights. JAXA is planning to conduct another commercial flight with its newer Epsilon-S rocket. It would carry a Vietnamese satellite into space next year.

JAXA was running a live broadcast at the time of launch which was halted as soon as Epsilon-6 project leader Yasuhiro Funo reported “positioning abnormalities”. Later on, the presenters told the viewers that there had been a problem with the launch. Funo said during the news conference that the technical issue occurred before the third, and final, stage of the launch, just as the last booster was about to be ignited.

*^{The Epsilon-5 rocket carrying nine satellites lifts off from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Nov. 9, 2021. (Image Credit: Kyodo)}*

Japan has one of the world’s largest space programs. JAXA often collaborates with NASA and European space agencies to send its missions and astronauts into space. Earlier this month, JAXA sent one of its astronauts Koichi Wakata to the International Space Station (ISS) for a space exploration mission. Wakata was aboard the Crew-5 mission in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. He was accompanied by two American and one Russian astronaut.

The Crew-5 launch was orchestrated by NASA to bring a group of 4 astronauts aboard the ISS for a six-month-long rotation period. The Crew-5 space mission marked for eighth human spaceflight for SpaceX and it was the fifth time that NASA acquired services from Elon Musk’s company to send astronauts into space.