fire breaks out at space center during rocket test

It was 8:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. Paris time) on Tuesday, November 26, when fireballs and white smoke rose into the sky over Japan's Tanegashima space center, in the isolated prefecture of Kagoshima. , in the southwest of the archipelago. This major fire, visible on images from the public television channel NHK, and affecting the site of the Japanese space agency (JAXA), occurred while the latter was testing a solid fuel Epsilon S rocket.

“There was an abnormality during today's combustion test. We are trying to establish what happened”declared JAXA in a press release sent to Agence France-Presse. “No injuries have been reported at this time. The causes [de l’incident] are also under investigation”she added.

About thirty seconds into the test, witnessed by media stationed about 600 meters away, a loud explosion was heard, and what appeared to be a burning object flew toward the sea, NHK reported. The Japanese newspaper Sankei reported that orange flames burst from the rocket engine placed on a horizontal platform before the explosion.

Successes and setbacks

JAXA has suffered several setbacks in recent years in its rocket programs. In 2022, an agency probe, Omotenashi, on board the American Artemis-1 mission, experienced a fatal battery failure shortly after its ejection into space. In July 2023, when an Epsilon S rocket exploded during a test, approximately 50 seconds after ignition.

But in February 2024, the agency managed to launch the H3, its new flagship rocket which was presented as a rival to the Falcon 9 from the American SpaceX. This success followed the successful moon landing in January of an unmanned probe, making Japan the fifth country to achieve such a feat.

In March, a rocket from a private Japanese company exploded a few seconds after launch. Named “Kairos » and 18 meters high, this solid fuel rocket from the start-up Space One, based in Tokyo, took off with a small satellite from the Japanese government on board. But seconds after launch, the rocket turned into a ball of fire, with thick smoke filling the launch site and flaming debris from the craft falling onto the surrounding slopes.