Video: Japanese Company's Rocket Explodes Minutes After Launching

On Wednesday, the first rocket launched by the Japanese Space One, which is a start-up electronics company, exploded in the sky seconds after taking off. 

The Japanese company hoped to become the country’s first private company to send a satellite into orbit. 

The rocket launched in the morning before it burst into flames seconds later.

BREAKING: Space One rocket explodes during launch from southern Japan pic.twitter.com/8IWiu2bRKa

— BNO News (@BNONews) March 13, 2024

The explosion and the fall of the rocket's debris caused a fire in a nearby forest that firefighters later put out.

Space One Director Mamoru Endo said that the rocket appeared to have automatically self-destructed after its systems detected an abnormality.

Space One President Masakazu Toyoda revealed that the company would investigate the incident.