A massive fire broke out on Tuesday at a Japanese space agency site while it was testing an Epsilon S rocket, television footage showed.
There were no injuries in the incident in the remote Kagoshima prefecture of southern Japan. A large ball of fire and smoke rose from the center of the Tanegashima crater, according to images from national broadcaster NHK.
“Something unusual happened during a firefighting test today. “We are trying to determine what happened,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) told AFP in a statement.
“No injuries have been reported at this time.” The cause of the fire is also being investigated. »
NHK said the fire broke out during a test fire that began at 8:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. GMT), with the broadcast station about 600 meters away.
About 30 seconds later, a loud explosion was heard and what appeared to be a burning object flew into the sea, NHK said. The Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported that orange light from the rocket was placed on a vertical platform before the explosion.
Tuesday’s fire is not the first time JAXA has had a setback in its rocket program. In July 2023, the Epsilon S engine exploded during a test, about 50 seconds after ignition.
It was part of a series of failures by Japan’s space agency JAXA, including an attempt to launch the next-generation H3 rocket. Last February, JAXA successfully launched the H3, its new flagship rocket that was launched as a rival to SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
This follows the successful landing of an unmanned probe on the Moon in January, albeit on a bumpy side, becoming only the fifth country to achieve a “soft landing” on the lunar surface. In March, a rocket built by a private Japanese company exploded seconds after launch.
Space One’s 18-meter-long Kairos rocket blasted off from a beach in Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan with a small government test satellite on board. But about five seconds later, the solid fuel rocket burst into flames, sending a plume of smoke billowing across the remote mountainside as orange flames streaked the ground, live footage showed.
Burning debris fell onto surrounding hillsides as sprinklers began spraying water, in a dramatic spectacle that was watched by hundreds of spectators gathered in public areas, including a nearby beach. Space One said at the time that it had made the decision to “terminate the flight” and the details were being investigated.
