The Japanese space agency resolved to send a destruction signal to its Epsilon launcher “because of the danger it would represent if it crashed on the ground,” said a Jaxa official.
Le Monde with AFP
This had not happened since 2003. Noting a problem when the launch of one of its rockets for the first time in almost twenty years, Wednesday October 12, the Japanese space agency, Jaxa, sent an order self-destruction to Epsilon-6, which transported several satellites.
“The rocket cannot continue its flight safely, because of the danger it would represent if it crashed on the ground,” Japanese channel TBS said. “So we have taken measures to avoid such an incident, and we sent a signal” to destroy it, added the manager, without providing details on the origin of the problem.
26 meters High, 95 tonnes
It was the sixth launch of an Epsilon rocket, a solid fuel model of the Jaxa whose flights (not inhabited) began in 2013.
The Jaxa had interrupted, Wednesday, the live broadcast online of the launch of Epsilon-6 of its space center in Uchinoura, in the department of Kagoshima (southwest of Japan), without initially explained explanations .
This 26-meter-high and 95-ton rocket is smaller than the previous liquid fuel model in Japan, and had succeeded its previous solid fuel launcher “M-V”, abandoned in 2006 due to its high costs.