The Japanese launch vehicle Epsilon failed to reach its intended orbit after launch, as there were problems with the separation of the last stage. She had to be remotely destroyed along with eight satellites on board.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported that the rocket deviated from its intended trajectory before the regular separation of the second stage from the third. The launch team determined that Epsilon would not be able to reach the required altitude, so they decided to destroy it.
According to JAXA, the anomaly was recorded seven minutes after launch. Currently, engineers are looking for the causes of what happened.
According to the plans, Epsilon was supposed to send a RAISE-3 satellite weighing 110 kg into orbit to test seven innovative technologies, as well as five cubesats. In addition, under the contract with iQPS, it was planned to put into orbit two Earth remote sensing satellites QPS-SAR-3 and QPS-SAR-4, which use aperture radar synthesis technology. It allows remote sensing of the Earth in high resolution at any height under various weather and lighting conditions.
This mission was Epsilon's sixth and the first to fail. Five previous starts were successful. Epsilon launched in September 2013, December 2016, January 2018, January 2019 and November 2021.
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