TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese rocket carrying a satellite failed to reach orbit and was deliberately blown up about eight minutes after its launch on Monday, a spokesman for the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) said.
The Japanese H-2 rocket carrying a multi-purpose satellite for aviation control and meteorological observation blasted off from the Tanegashima space center in southern Japan at around 4:29 p.m. (0729 GMT).
But shortly afterwards the rocket's main engine stopped, forcing authorities to give up attempts at putting the satellite into orbit, the spokesman said. The rocket was then blown up.
It was not immediately clear why the engine malfunctioned.
It was Japan's second failure to place a satellite into geostationary orbit in nearly two years.
In February 1998, an H-2 failed to properly launch a satellite, wasting an estimated 60 billion yen ($572 million).
The launch of the latest rocket, initially set for September 10, had been postponed due to a series of mechanical mishaps.
The multi-purpose satellite, which Japan bought from the United States for about 10 billion yen, was designed to provide the Transportation Ministry with a sophisticated aviation control system from next April.
Japan's space program has often been criticized for its high costs and frequent mishaps, attributed in part to the division of responsibility for the program among no fewer than five government ministries.
Each H-2 rocket launch to place a satellite into geostationary orbit costs close to 19 billion yen ($180 million), about double the cost of competitors such as the European Space Agency's Ariane rocket.
Japan announced in August that it was axing the smaller of its two domestic rockets, the J-1, in a cost-cutting move.
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