TOKYO - After the launcher's second-stage engine failed to ignite as planned on Tuesday, Japan's new medium-lift rocket failed on its first space flight, dealing a blow to its efforts to lower the cost of accessing space and compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX.
According to a live broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the 57-meter (187-foot) tall H3 rocket launched from the Tanegashima spaceport without incident.
But once in orbit, the rocket's second-stage engine failed to fire, necessitating the manual destruction of the craft by mission officials.
The ALOS-3, a satellite for disaster management and land observation, was launched by Japan's first new rocket in three decades. It also included an experimental infrared sensor for spotting launches of North Korean ballistic missiles.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI), the company that built the H3, said it was checking the circumstances surrounding the rocket with JAXA and did not immediately have any comments.
The H3 is expected to cost half as much to launch as its predecessor, the H-II, according to MHI, helping it compete in a global launch market that is increasingly dominated by SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket.
A company representative previously stated that the company was counting on the dependability of Japan's earlier rockets to attract customers.
The cost of a Falcon 9 launch to low Earth orbit was estimated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies to be $2,600 per kilogram in a report released in September. The H-II has an equivalent price tag of $10,500.
The European Space Agency's new, less expensive Ariane 6 vehicle was supposed to be launched later this year, but a successful launch on Tuesday would have put the Japanese rocket into orbit first.
The H3 is intended to launch government and commercial satellites into Earth orbit and will deliver supplies to the International Space Station. It is powered by a new, more affordable engine that uses 3D-printed components.
It will eventually transport cargo to the Gateway lunar space station that NASA plans to build as part of its program to return people to the moon, including Japanese astronauts, as part of Japan's expanding cooperation with the United States in space.
In morning trading, shares of MHI decreased 1.8% while the larger Japanese benchmark index increased 0.4%.