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Japan’s long-awaited H3 Rocket was intentionally detonated and destroyed Tuesday after its second stage engine failed to ignite, following a launch that initially appeared to be on track towards success.
“A destruct command has been transmitted to H3 around 10:52 a.m. (Japan Standard Time), because there was no possibility of achieving the mission,” Japan’s space agency, JAXA, wrote in a terse release.
The H3 blasted off on time from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 10:37 a.m. JST (8:37 p.m. EST March 6). Atop the rocket was the three-ton Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3).
The rocket soared from the launch pad and into the atmosphere in a picture perfect manner at first, with the side boosters separately as planned. But shortly after disappearing from view, word came that the self-destruct command had been issued.
JAXA mission control gave the order to destroy the vehicle and the satellite on board in order to maintain some element of control over where the entire package might come down in a safe manner.
Orbit watcher and astronomer Jonathan McDowell at Harvard estimates that the debris fell into the Pacific Ocean about twenty minutes after liftoff.
The H3 is meant to give the island nation an upgraded alternative to its primary launch vehicle, the H-2A. The 207-foot tall rocket’s maiden voyage has faced a number of delays, including a recent aborted launch earlier this year that was called off just moments before liftoff.
The H3 is designed to be on par with workhorse launch systems like the SpaceX Falcon 9, although the H3 is expendable, unlike the reusable Falcon 9.
The new vehicle has been in the works for almost a decade as a successor to the H-2A that has been in use since the turn of the century. H3 has been a joint project of JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
A Mitsubishi subsidiary also produced the satellite that was on board and destroyed.
The company has yet to provide a comment on the failed mission.
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