Japan's first private satellite launch imitates SpaceX's giant explosions

On another bad day for Japan's space industry, the nation's first private satellite launch failed within seconds of launch. The first flight of the KAIROS – a rocket developed by private entity SPACE ONE – barely got off the pad before it was detonated by mission control. Kairos has a single solid propellant motor, a liquid- …

[hfo1]

Was Roman Roy involved?

[Andy The Hat]

This is very unfortunate but demonstrates exactly why everybody (including "joyriders") should remember space flight is both difficult and dangerous.

[werdsmith]

It looked like it started to pitch over too soon. The controllers didn't wait for it to be over the sea to abort, they did it quickly so the whole thing came down to start a fire on the pad. Maybe the abort was automated, but a few more seconds would have had the whole thing over water.

[Pascal Monett]

I can't get the video to work

In Firefox it didn't want to go. Said "can't find MIME format" or somesuch.

Tried in Brave, no cigar. Seamonkey didn't like it either.

So I copied the URL to my work PC and tried with Chrome. Still no go.

What format are you people using for even Chrome to not agree ?

P.S. : all my browsers are up to date and have no trouble viewing videos on YouTube or elsewhere, like this one.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: I can't get the video to work

Oddly enough, if you right-click & ask Firefox to open the video in a new tab it plays (from YouTube) just fine.

[werdsmith]

Re: I can't get the video to work

It didn't play for me either, so I hopped over and watched it on BBC.

[renniks]

Re: I can't get the video to work

Real Player?

[FIA]

Re: I can't get the video to work

I've said it before... I'll say it again... This site needs more trigger warnings.

[diodesign]

We screwed up, oops

Yeah, we screwed up and broke the embed. It's now fixed. Don't forget to email [e-mail] please if you spot anything wrong so we can fix it right away rather than realize too late.

C.

[Andy The Hat]

I thought that but it appeared that the trajectory of the vehicle (what was left of it) took it a good distance from the pad, yet the pad infrastructure was well alight. My guess is that the significant "anomaly" occurred almost at launch rather than after liftoff, probably with the 2nd stage liquid fuel system. Perhaps a few tons of fuel dumped on the pad and a major imbalance of the vehicle would be less than optimal ...

[Spherical Cow]

Immediately after the explosion there is a significant burning chunk heading back the way it came, I think that's what caused the pad fire.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please...

... just stop with the persistent SpaceX snark.

I know it's become the Register thing to do (especially from Simon) but it's getting really tiresome.

This stuff is hard, all the companies have suffered explosions. Here, look, here's a good one, you'll like this: https://youtu.be/aL5eddt-iAo?t=63

(The Orbital Sciences Antares launch failure)

It's actually more relevant to this article because it happened at around the same time in flight - although it's still not really worthy of mentioning (any more so than dragging SpaceX in) because all the relevant bits of technology involved are completely different.

[John Robson]

Re: Please...

And only the "on pad" failure of an F9 comes close in terms of pad damage due to rocket failure.

Yes, IFT1 did "some" damage to the launch infrastructure, but not through failure of the rocket.

[Flocke Kroes]

Snark is in the eye of the beholder

I interpreted imitating SpaceX explosions as hardware rich development: prototypes optimised for rapid contruction at low cost. That would mean Space One would be ready with an improved rocket ready to launch in months.

I do not know if that was Mr Sharwood's intent or if Space One really are going hardware rich but I assumed it was a compliment. Far better than the more popular alternative: optimising for long delays and great expense to maximise cost plus billing.

[diodesign]

You might be over-thinking it

Hi -- I think this says more about you than about us and your perception of criticism against Elon.

We're just pointing out that this launch went through the same sort of thing (RUD) SpaceX had to overcome. And Musk's lot figured it out, so good luck to Japan.

If Microsoft had a massive hole in its Windows login system and then Linux had a similar issue a week or year later, we'd probably reference that Microsoft bug in the Linux coverage. Pattern recognition; it's what humans do.

C.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Classic RUD

Better luck next time. Rocket science is indeed hard

Note: RUD = Rapid Unplanned Disassembly

(although I assume most Register Regulars know this)

[John Brown (no body)]

KA-BOOOM!

Commentator <dead-pan> A launch anomaly.

LOL