Self-Destruct Command Issued After Liftoff for Japan’s New H3 Rocket

Rocket carried sensor in hope of detecting North Korea's ballistic missile launches

Japan's next generation "H3" rocket, carrying the advanced optical satellite "Daichi 3", leaves the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan on March 7, 2023. (STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it has had to destroy its new medium-lift H3 rocket that it launched toward space on Tuesday.

The self-destruct command was issued after the vehicle’s second-stage engine failed to ignite after liftoff, and it was determined that the mission could not succeed.

The 57-meter (187 ft) tall H3 rocket lifted off from the JAXA Tanegashima spaceport. It was the second launch attempt for the rocket following an aborted launch on Feb. 17 after a main engine failure on the launch pad.

The team later reported that the engine failure was due to a voltage transient within the rocket’s first-stage controller, which was then corrected.

The space venture was a partnership between JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy.

The rocket was carrying the ALOS-3 (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3), a disaster management land observation satellite that is also equipped with an experimental infrared sensor designed to detect North Korean ballistic missile launches. It is also called the DAICHI-3 by the Japanese.

The plan was to push the optical imaging satellite into a 669-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite had a high-resolution sensor that could image at a 0.8-meter resolution over a 70-kilometer range.

ALOS-2, which has a 1.2 GHz synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) sensor, remains in orbit, but ALOS-1 was taken offline by a suspected meteorite hit in May 2011.

Reuters contributed to this report.