Japanese rocket’s failed launch attempt ends up in flames

Not all rocket launches go as planned and something similar happened with Japan’s recent rocket that crashed and burst into flames instead of blasting off into outer space. 

Japanese startup company ‘Interstellar Technologies’ attempted to launch a rocket, the 33ft MOMO-2. However, to everyone’s disappointment, the launch didn’t go as expected and ended up in a rocket crash moments after its liftoff. Luckily, since the rocket was uncrewed, no one was injured.

Video Courtesy: The Space Program

The video shows the rocket leaving the launch pad but crashing back to Earth around six seconds later, and ending up in a huge crash and blast. The aim of developing MOMO-2 was to make small, lightweight and low-cost rockets that can send satellites to space, but they failed to do so, reported Science Alert.

NASA sends 20 mice to space for research

“We have never seen a failure like this,” company’s founder Takafumi Horie told the media. “We are thinking about what we can do to maintain some tie to the next step even as the future remains barely visible.”

This crash of MOMO-2 is not particularly favorable for the company, which aims to put a satellite to low Earth orbit by 2020. Nevertheless, the company managed to stay hopeful saying that the launch facility remained intact with no serious damage and made promise to continue the program, wrote Engadget.

“We could not accomplish what we were expected to do. I feel sorry for that. I feel that I would like to keep giving it a shot,” said Takahiro Inagawa, the company’s president, told the South China Morning Post.

Interstellar is still yet to indicate what might have caused the crash. This rocket attempt was the second one at an inexpensive rocket launch. The first rocket, MOMO was also inexpensive one, costing US$440,000 as compared to the Japanese government’s US$1.8 million minimum. However, MOMO was partially successful and managed to leave its launch pad.