Video On another bad day for Japan's space industry, the nation's first private satellite launch failed within seconds of launch.
The first flight of the KAIROS – a rocket developed by private entity SPACE ONE – barely got off the pad before it was detonated by mission control.
Kairos has a single solid propellant motor, a liquid-fuelled upper stage, and the ability to hoist payloads up to 150 kilograms into a Sun-synchronous orbit at around 500km altitude. Payloads destined for low Earth orbit at the same altitude can weigh up to 250kg, provided they fit within the 1.5-meter diameter fairing.
SPACE ONE has developed single- and multi-satellite payload plans, and hopes to enter the commercial launch market as a "courier service."
That idea failed to launch today because Kairos exploded five seconds into flight – as shown in the video below.
Local media report that the mission was aborted after striking unspecified trouble – qualifying the launch as less than a complete failure as it did not explode uncontrollably.
The rocket carried a payload for Japan's government, thought to be an experimental augmentation to its heavenly intelligence assets.
Japan's space program has seen mixed success of late. Some of its efforts – like the Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission – were stunning successes.
But when the national space agency's (JAXA's) SLIM lander touched down on the Moon in January this year, it landed on ..
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