About 600 people who had gathered to observe the launch in the Hokkaido town watched as the rocket fell from the sky in flames
The launch of what would have been Japan’s first privately developed rocket to reach outer space failed Saturday, as the rocket crashed to the ground and burst into flames seconds after lift-off, its developer said.
Officials of Interstellar Technologies Inc., founded in 2013 by former Livedoor President Takafumi Horie, said the rocket, MOMO-2, lost thrust shortly after lift-off at around 5.30am from a test site in the town of Taiki on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
No injuries were reported in the explosion of the unstaffed rocket, which was about 10 metres long, 50cm in diameter and weighed 1 ton.
This is the second launch failure in a row for Interstellar Technologies. Last July, it attempted to send the MOMO-1 into space to an altitude of over 100km, but had to abort the launch after contact was lost some 70 seconds into the flight.
The latest failure suggests that a difficult road lies ahead for privately developed rockets. People involved in the project expressed shock and dismay.
“I could not immediately understand what happened,” Interstellar Technologies President Takahiro Inagawa told a press conference, while venture founder Horie called it “an unprecedented failure”.
