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Japan's Smart Rocket Is Having Trouble Getting to Space

It's the future, but first it has to fly.
Japanese engineers working with Epsilon's second and third stage connection, via JAXA

Japan's bid to become a bigger force in commercial spaceflight suffered a setback today, when its first new rocket design in more than a decade failed to launch for the second time this month. Japan's Epsilon rocket, which is designed to be smaller, cheaper, and easier to use than other designs, aborted launch this morning just 19 seconds shy of takeoff, with an "irregularity" to blame.

The Epsilon rocket is designed to be heavily automated, with the ability to perform its own systems checks with onboard computers. Smart rocket, artificially intelligent, whatever you want to call it, Epsilon is billed as the future. At about 80 feet tall and 91 tons, the three-stage solid fuelrocket is on the small end of current designs, and can lift more than 2,600 pounds into orbit. Epsilon can be launched with programs run on regular desktop computers, rather than specialized launch systems and control centers.

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That makes the rocket far more portable—relatively speaking—than other rockets out there, which could bring the era of commercial space far more flexibility than it currently has. In other words, such easy-to-use rockets could make space access far more distributed than it is now.

A NASA comparison of current American launch vehicles.

First it has to fly. Epsilon's first flight was postponed earlier this month due to a computer glitch, and now it's been aborted again. It was scheduled to launch a telescope as its test payload, but it's unclear if and when a launch will be tried again. It's possible this means the automatic checking systems are working properly—Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency official Yuko Hoshikawa did not make clear if it was a manual or automatic abort, and the agency says it's still investigating the cause—but it's still a disappointing setback.

In the space game, however, it's hardly a disaster. Even though Epsilon is partially based on older Japanese designs, it's a highly advanced piece of equipment, and there's no room for error in spaceflight. Remember that SpaceX's vaunted Dragon design had myriad false starts and setbacks early on—and eventually flew despite losing an engine—before hitting its stride.

While that might not make Japanese engineers feel better, the boom in recent years of new rocket designs is a boon for space fans and tycoons alike. NASA is rebooting the massive Space Launch System, which will take large payloads into the future. But the crushing grip the US once had on commercial spaceflight has long faded, and the growing options for launch platforms will serve to make space more competive and cost effective than ever.

@derektmead