THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 14, 2023 at 17:00 JST
AKITA--A small Epsilon S rocket engine exploded during a test in a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency testing center in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, on July 14, breaking the morning quiet and sending up plumes of smoke.
Police received an emergency call shortly after 9 a.m. from a nearby resident reporting that she heard “a loud noise and saw smoke” rising from the Noshiro Rocket Testing Center.
JAXA said that an explosion occurred during a combustion test of the second-stage engine of the Epsilon S rocket, which is an improved model of the small solid-fuel Epsilon rocket, at the facility in the prefecture in the northeastern Tohoku region.
The combustion test of the rocket engine was scheduled at the testing center from 9 a.m., according to the Noshiro Police Station and fire department.
A 79-year-old man who lives in a village about 1 kilometer from the site said, "I heard a loud noise and the windows rattled intensely.
"I felt something like a blast wave. I was surprised by the impact even though I live a little distance from the testing center."
Firefighters said they dispatched 10 fire trucks to extinguish a blaze that broke out in one of the buildings in the center. No injuries were reported.
JAXA said that the combustion test was being conducted in the vacuum firing test building in the center from 9 a.m.
The test was planned to last around two minutes, but the explosion occurred about 57 seconds after the start of combustion, JAXA said.
During the combustion test, entry was restricted within a radius of around 600 meters from the test building.
JAXA’s Noshiro Rocket Testing Center was established in 1962.
Currently, it is conducting combustion tests of the Epsilon S and experimenting with reusable rockets that can be recovered and launched repeatedly.
JAXA's rocket and spacecraft launches have been beset with a series of failures since last year.
In October, an Epsilon-6 rocket launch ended in failure, and Japan's new flagship H-3 rocket was ordered to self-destruct after launch in March.
In addition, unstable communications with a small Omotenashi lunar probe dashed hopes for the nation's first lunar landing in November.
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A fire breaks out and smoke rises at JAXA’s Noshiro Rocket Testing Center in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, shortly after 9 a.m. on July 14. (Provided by Minoru Otsuka)
