Elon Musk's SpaceX Rival Japan's H3 Rocket Fails To Launch: 'It Is Really Galling'

Japan, on Friday, was forced to halt the launch of its first new medium-lift rocket after secondary booster engines strapped to its side failed to ignite.

What Happened: Moments before Japan's H3 vehicle was about to lift off, the 57-meter (187ft) rocket was left on the ground at the Tanegashima spaceport with its payload because of the booster engine’s failure, reported Reuters. 

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“A lot of people have been following our progress and we are really sorry,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s project manager for H3, Masahisa Okada, said at a media briefing. “It is really galling,” he added.

The project manager said JAXA would potentially attempt a second launch before the end of March.

Tokyo had built the H3 to compete with rivals like Elon Musk‘s SpaceX to capture a bigger share of the global market and enhance its independent access to space. The H3 is designed to put satellites — commercial as well as governmental — into orbit and ferry supplies to the International Space Station.

The rocket would have carried the ALOS-3 land observation satellite to space which is also equipped with an infrared sensor to detect Kim Jong Un's North Korea's ballistic missiles.

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