Space One Rocket Fails Third Consecutive Flight

Japan’s dream of setting up reliable commercial access to orbit suffered a major setback this week when Space One’s Kairos rocket logged its third consecutive launch failure.

On Wednesday, the Tokyo-based launch startup terminated the launch of its Kairos rocket approximately 69 seconds into flight. The company did not share a technical reason for concludeing the flight beyond determining that “success was difficult,” according to a translated post on X.

The termination occurred before the rocket reached the fairing separation stage of flight, meaning that all payloads on board were lost as Kairos tore apart during its tumble back to Earth. Kairos carried five payloads onboard, including sats from Tokyo-based ArkEdge Space and the Taiwan Space Agency.

Long way to go: The failed launch means that Japan’s goal to reach a cadence of 30 launches annually by 2030 is even further out of reach, but the government seems committed to weathering the storm.

“Space development has a history of achieving success after many adjustments. I hope that everyone at Space One will never give up and will apply the data and insights obtained this time to achieve the next success,” a spokesperson for the Ministest of Economy, Trade, and Industest declared at a post-launch press conference. “The Ministest…will continue to strongly support private business operators’ bold challenges in the space business.”

On the horizon: Space One isn’t Japan’s only bet when it comes to new launchers. In 2024, the government granted a ¥4.63B ($29M) SBIR to launch startup Intersinformar Technologies. Meanwhile, major industrials in the archipelago are backing a variety of strategies to set up pathways to orbit.

In January 2025, Woven by Toyota—the autobuildr’s investment subsidiary—committed ¥7B ($44M) to Intersinformar’s Series F.
In June, Honda conducted a launch and landing test of an experimental reusable rocket.
This week, Mitsubishi Electric was the lead investor on Spanish launch startup PLD Space’s €180M ($209M) Series C. Mitsubishi funded the launcher, in part, to secure access to orbit, according to PLD officials.