Space rocket ordered to self-destruct after failed launch

Maybe they should ask the North Koreans to help out. Their rockets seem to work well. This could be a new start to better relations. ;)

The unmanned rocket, designed to launch in three stages, was taking several satellites into orbit on its sixth space mission.

Hopefully the satellites had (very expensive) insurance. The investment to produce each can mean the cancellation of a whole project because of a failed lauch.

Every space-faring nation has had a few foul-ups. You just keep on truckin'. After all, JAXA made history with that Ryuku mission a few years ago. Keep on rollin.

Wow, after the South Korean missile malfunction the other day and now this, seems like Tokyo and Seoul should get some of that more reliable North Korean missile tech.

Imagine Japan teaming up with North Korea and exploring the Solar System?

North Korean know-how with Japanese investment funding!

You guys that like North Korea should move there and get all the information for the Japanese Space Program

How anyone could downvote my amazing proposal is just beyond me!

Surely a win-win partnership.

North Korea comes out from behind the curtain whilst Japan achieves successful rocket launches!

All nations launching rockets had failure

The basic problem lies with using a one off disposable over sized firework. As a means of space access it is an intrinsically flawed approach.

There are better approaches but this remains the available means and will remain so until funding is provided to complete the development of the alternatives.

Longer term we need to build space elevators for rapid, cheap, continuous and volume access to space, but that will have to wait until material science can provide cables strong enough; though current materials would suffice on the moon and possibly Mars.

I hate when that happens.

Looks like a lot of non engineering students commenting, the best thing to do was destroy the missile through using the range destruct system. There are a number of things that could have happened during the prelaunch all the way up until the missile gets its "Arm Command" there is a number of sequences that follow should the software detect anything in between those timed sequences the system is designed to alert the range safety officer to send the command to destruct. Japan is a small country had the missile went off course out of its designed imprint and lets just say head toward NK that could have started a war in itself. If you don't understand the technology and don't work or haven't worked in such environments then its easy to make slight comments.

Japan is not endangered by the North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles passing above. Japan is only endangered by itself.

"Self Destruct" Don't we all would love to have this command I could have sent it 500 times by now.

Self Destruct? Where will the pieces fall on earth? On a city? In the ocean? In the Sahara? Ort Siberia? Or, will the rocket be reduced to dust? Will the wind spread the dust over the whole of Europe? Or China? Or India? Or Australia? Will the dust cause cancer to every inhabitant who breathes it? Will Japan be held responsible for any danger to the world's health and safety due to the Self Destruct of her rocket?

Maybe they should ask the North Koreans to help out. Their rockets seem to work well. This could be a new start to better relations. ;)

Going to orbit with a sensitive payload is very different from throwing a rock over the horizon. It isn't like NK is actually designing and building their own rockets. They are bought from China.

Self Destruct has been part of every rocket system from responsible countries since the mid-1960s. There's a big difference between 20 tonnes of rocket hitting in 1 place and 20 tonnes split into 5 lb chunks hitting. China doesn't do the self-destruct thing and we've seen videos where villages there are wiped out as failed rockets hit intact and create huge fireballs in the area.

https://youtu.be/LAyOhUYIbd4 No self-destruct.

https://youtu.be/lD10fV7E_qM No self-destruct.

Yes, the US STS and SLS had/have a self-destruct capability. There was an air force officer ready to arm and kill everyone on the space shuttles, if necessary. The Shuttle itself didn't have destruct charges, but the tank and SRBs did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_safety

didouOct. 12  07:03 pm JST

All nations launching rockets had failure

The death of Laika on Sputnik 2 didn't stop the Russian space agency from going forward. Pioneer 1 was a flop but we still sent robots to the Moon anyway. And the Apollo 1 disaster that killed 3 American astronauts didn't halt man's drive to the Moon either. The fall of Skylab in 1979 didn't stop the progress of building future space stations. The bashing of the Russian Mars 1 lander didn't hinder the success of NASA's Viking 1 lander five years later.

You work at it, you screw up, you learn.

LamillyOct. 12  10:37 pm JST

Ah..at least they're trying. Better luck next time

It happens to everyone sometimes. Keep chipping away the stone, JAXA. You already made historical achievements and there's more to come.

@theFu

It isn't like NK is actually designing and building their own rockets. They are bought from China.

North Korean rockets are actually built in North Korea and North Korea is a big time ballistic missile exporter. China isn't helping North Korea with their nuclear weapon and missile program, because Beijing too is the potential target of North Korean nuclear missiles as much as Tokyo.

Looks like a lot of non engineering students commenting, the best thing to do was destroy the missile through using the range destruct system.

Definitely. I've worked as a rocket scientist writing real-time GN&C software for man-rated systems. I studied rocket science at University (actually hypersonic fluid dynamics), but we covered all aspects of aircraft and space craft design and operations. Range safety is critical.

Don't kill people on the ground who didn't sign up to be in a dangerous job related to the launch. Don't. Everyone except China understands that. For a country that claims to care so much about the lives of their citzens ... you know the whole ZERO COVID thing ... they certainly do kill lots of people in other ways.

I wonder if all those missile launching freaks can or will be stopped by 2050 too or will they get a special exemption when blowing tons of CO2 and garbage everywhere?