Japan 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-metre (187 ft) tall H3 rocket lifted off from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima space port, following an aborted launch last month.
It was carrying the ALOS-3, a disaster management land observation satellite that is also equipped with an experimental infrared sensor designed to detect North Korean ballistic missile launches.
The launch was Japan’s first exercise back in the space rocket arena in three decades….