Another setback for Japan’s space ambitions: a huge fire broke out at a test site in the south of the country. Journalists near the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture reported a large explosion shortly after a combustion test began.
Images from state broadcaster NHK showed towering fireballs and plumes of white smoke on Tuesday. There have been no reports of injuries so far. Japan’s Jaxa space agency told AFP there was an “abnormality during today’s combustion test”. The incident is under investigation.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the agency’s plan to launch an Epsilon-S rocket by March is now virtually impossible. The Asian state’s space ambitions have recently been set back by a series of failures. In July, the test of an Epsilon-S rocket ended in an explosion 50 seconds after launch.
A series of accidents in Japanese space travel
In April last year, a lunar module from the Japanese start-up Ispace crashed on the moon’s surface. In January, Japan’s Slim spacecraft successfully landed on the moon. But the happiness only lasted a short time. In March, a Space One Kairos rocket activated its self-destruct mechanism just seconds after launch.
Source: Krone
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