After Japan’s H3 rocket failed to reach orbit on Monday, the country’s space agency is trying to figure out what went wrong and what it implies for Japanese space strategy moving forward.
The H3 rocket lifted off on Monday at 8:37 p.m. ET taking off from Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture’s Tanegashima Space Station.
Japan Forced To Destroy H3 Rocket After Failed Launch
Less than 14 minutes later, the H3 upper stage and its payload, the ALOS-3 advanced Earth-observing satellite, were reduced to burning shards that fell into the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles off the Philippine coast.