Space One’s Kairos rocket is launched before it explodes after liftoff from a launch pad in Kushimoto, Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, on March 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A rocket that was supposed to become Japan’s first from the private sector to put a satellite into orbit exploded shortly after takeoff on March 13, a livestreamed video showed. Online video showed the rocket called Kairos blasting off from Wakayama Prefecture, in central Japan, a mountainous area filled with trees, but exploding midair within seconds.

A huge plume of smoke engulfed the area, and flames shot up in some spots. The video then showed spurts of water trying to put out the blaze. There were no reports of injuries, and the fire has been brought under control, according to the fire department in Kushimoto city, Wakayama,

Tokyo-based start-up Space One, behind the rocket launch, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Live footage on public broadcaster NHK relayed a voice announcing to the crowd gathered to watch the take-off from a safe distance. NHK showed debris scattering from the sky, and later charred pieces strewn about on the ground. The cause of the problems was still under investigation, according to NHK.

The launch was already delayed several times, with the last postponement coming on Saturday, after a ship was spotted in a risk area, according to Japanese media reports. If it had succeeded, Space One would have been the first private company to put a rocket into orbit.

Tokyo-based Space One was set up in 2018, with investments from major Japanese companies, including Canon Electronics, IHI, Shimizu and major banks.

Japan’s main space exploration effort has been led by the government’s NASDA, which stands for The National Space Development Agency of Japan, this nation’s equivalent of NASA of the U.S. The agency is now called JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Wednesday’s failure is likely to work as a setback for such private sector efforts. The rocket was supposed to have sent a satellite into orbit around earth to gather various information.

Mouse embryos have been grown on the International Space Station. Representative image
| Photo Credit: AP

Mouse embryos have been grown on the International Space Station and developed normally in the first study indicating it could be possible for humans to reproduce in space, a group of Japanese scientists said.

The researchers, including Teruhiko Wakayama, professor of University of Yamanashi’s Advanced Biotechnology Centre, and a team from the Japan Aerospace Space Agency (JAXA), sent frozen mouse embryos on board a rocket to the ISS in August 2021.

Astronauts thawed the early-stage embryos using a special device designed for this purpose and grew them on the station for four days.

“The embryos cultured under microgravity conditions developed” normally into blastocysts, cells that develop into the foetus and placenta, the scientists said.

The experiment “clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect,” the researchers said in a study that was published online in the scientific journal iScience on Saturday.

They also said there were no significant changes in condition of the DNA and genes, after they analysed the blastocysts that were sent back to their laboratories on Earth.

This is “the first-ever study that shows mammals may be able to thrive in space,” University of Yamanashi and national research institute Riken said in a joint statement on Saturday.

It is “the world’s first experiment that cultured early-stage mammalian embryos under complete microgravity of ISS,” the statement said.

“In the future, it will be necessary to transplant the blastocysts that were cultured in ISS’s microgravity into mice to see if mice can give birth” to confirm that the blastocysts are normal, it added.

Such research could be important for future space exploration and colonisation missions.

Under its Artemis programme, NASA plans to send humans back to the Moon in order to learn how to live there long-term to help prepare a trip to Mars, sometime towards the end of the 2030s.