THE NEW SPACE RACE: Private Japanese rocket explodes after liftoff in its 2nd launch failure of 2024.

Space One was aiming to be the first private Japanese company to put a satellite into orbit with the Kairos 2 rocket, but it was not to be. After taking off around 11 a.m. local time today from Space Port Kii in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, the 59-foot-tall (18 meters) rocket began tumbling.

Space One terminated the flight some three minutes into the flight at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) after detecting anomalies in the rocket’s first-stage engines and trajectory. The rocket was carrying five satellites developed by Japanese commercial firms, high school students and a Taiwanese company.
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Space One’s Kairos rocket features three solid-fuel stages and a liquid propellant upper stage. It was designed to carry payloads up to 550 pounds (250 kilograms) into low Earth orbit, filling a gap in Japan’s current competitiveness in the space launch market.

That’s a tough market with SpaceX doing ridesharing missions.