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Tag: JAXA

  • Japan Botched a Satellite Launch in One of the Weirdest Ways Possible

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    New details have emerged regarding Japan’s H3 rocket failure last month, revealing the strange way its payload—a navigation satellite—was lost prior to reaching its target orbit.

    Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the seventh mission of its H3 rocket on December 21, 2025, carrying the Michibiki 5 satellite. Shortly after liftoff, the rocket’s second-stage engine suffered an anomaly that caused it to shut down prematurely. JAXA officials recently revealed the root cause of the rocket anomaly: The protective cone-shaped covering that encased the satellite, known as a payload fairing, came apart around 4 minutes after launch. As a result, the satellite was left fighting for its life before it inevitably fell back to Earth.

    An illustration of the payload fairing anomaly. Credit: JAXA 

    JAXA shared extensive information about the recent anomaly, including this helpful illustration of the payload fairing breaking off from the rocket.

    Anomalous anomaly

    The rocket business is undoubtedly tricky, and launches fail in all sorts of ways. This incident, however, may be one of the strangest ways a rocket has failed to deliver its payload.

    The 207-foot-tall (63-meter) rocket had a rocky debut, ending in a self-destruct command just 15 minutes after its first launch on March 6, 2023. Since its failed first launch, however, H3 has pulled off five successful missions to date.

    Shortly after the recent failed mission, JAXA stated that telemetry data showed that pressure in the second stage’s hydrogen tank began dropping during the first stage engine burn. As a result, the first stage engine cutoff took place 27 seconds later than planned, delaying the second ignition by 15 seconds. At the time, it wasn’t yet clear if the satellite had separated from the rocket.

    JAXA officials began an investigation into the anomaly and discovered that the pressure began to drop when the rocket accidentally jettisoned its payload fairing. The satellite and payload adapter may have been damaged by the shock of the fairing separation.

    Footage captured by a camera mounted on the adapter showed the satellite with apparent damage to its panels and insulation after the payload fairing had come off. A shower of debris surrounded the satellite, which clung to the rocket without its protective casing.

    Screen Shot 2026 01 30 At 11.04.00 Pm
    The navigation satellite on its way back to Earth. Credit: JAXA

    After the first stage shut down and separated, the jolt dislodged the satellite from its mooring, causing it to fall away from the rocket. The camera showed the satellite lost in Earth orbit during its untimely descent back to Earth. JAXA officials stated that the satellite fell in the Pacific Ocean, in the same area as H3’s first stage.

    Lost in space

    JAXA still does not know why the payload fairing suddenly came apart, and that part of the anomaly remains under investigation.

    Japan’s H3 rocket was 11 years in the making, a successor to the H-2A, which the agency retired in June 2025. Prior to its latest failure, JAXA had been aiming for at least two H3 launches per year. The rocket was due to launch another QSZ satellite in 2026, as well as Japan’s HTV-X cargo spacecraft. Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is also scheduled to launch on board the H3 rocket in late 2026.

    The unusual payload fairing separation, however, may force the space agency to delay its plans.

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  • US-Russian crew of 3 blasts off to the International Space Station in Russian spacecraft

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    A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off at 2:27 p.m. (9:27 a.m. GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 into orbit.The spacecraft carried NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. The craft docked at the International Space Station approximately three hours after liftoff at 5:34 p.m (12:34 p.m. GMT).All three are expected to spend about eight months at the orbiting outpost. NASA said this is the first spaceflight for Williams, a physicist, and Mikaev, a military pilot. This is the second flight for Kud-Sverchkov.At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations at the orbiting outpost aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth, NASA said.

    MOSCOW —

    A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.

    A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off at 2:27 p.m. (9:27 a.m. GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 into orbit.

    The spacecraft carried NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. The craft docked at the International Space Station approximately three hours after liftoff at 5:34 p.m (12:34 p.m. GMT).

    All three are expected to spend about eight months at the orbiting outpost. NASA said this is the first spaceflight for Williams, a physicist, and Mikaev, a military pilot. This is the second flight for Kud-Sverchkov.

    At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.

    Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations at the orbiting outpost aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth, NASA said.

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  • The first crop of space mining companies didn’t work out, but a new generation is trying again

    The first crop of space mining companies didn’t work out, but a new generation is trying again

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    Just a couple of years ago, it seemed that space mining was inevitable. Analysts, tech visionaries and even renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that space mining was going to be big business.

    Space mining companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, backed by the likes of Google‘s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, cropped up to take advantage of the predicted payoff.

    Fast forward to 2022, and both Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries have been acquired by companies that have nothing to do with space mining. Humanity has yet to commercially mine even a single asteroid. So what’s taking so long?

    Space mining is a long-term undertaking and one that investors do not necessarily have the patience to support. 

    “If we had to develop a full-scale asteroid mining vehicle today, we would need a few hundred million dollars to do that using commercial processes. It would be difficult to convince the investment community that that’s the right thing to do,” says Joel Sercel, president and CEO of TransAstra Corporation.

    “In today’s economics and in the economics of the near future, the next few years, it makes no sense to go after precious metals in asteroids. And the reason is the cost of getting to and from the asteroids is so high that it vastly outstrips the value of anything that you’d harness from the asteroids,” Sercel says.

    This has not dissuaded Sercel from trying to mine the cosmos. TransAstra will initially focus on mining asteroids for water to make rocket propellant, but would like to eventually mine “everything on the periodic table.” But Sercel says such a mission is still a ways off.

    “In terms of the timeline for mining asteroids, for us, the biggest issue is funding. So it depends on how fast we can scale the business into these other ventures and then get practical engineering experience operating systems that have all the components of an asteroid mining system. But we could be launching an asteroid mission in the 5 to 7-year time frame.”

    Sercel hopes these other ventures keep it afloat until it develops its asteroid mining business. The idea is to use the tech that will eventually be incorporated into TransAstra’s astroid mining missions to satisfy already existing market needs, such as using space tugs to deliver satellites to their exact orbits and using satellites to aid in traffic management as space gets increasingly more crowded.

    AstroForge is another company that believes space mining will become a reality. Founded in 2022 by a former SpaceX engineer and a former Virgin Galactic engineer, AstroForge still believes there is money to be made in mining asteroids for precious metals.

    “On Earth we have a limited amount of rare earth elements, specifically the platinum group metals. These are industrial metals that are used in everyday things your cell phone, cancer, drugs, catalytic converters, and we’re running out of them. And the only way to access more of these is to go off world,” says AstroForge Co-Founder and CEO Matt Gialich.

    AstroForge plans to mine and refine these metals in space and then bring them back to earth to sell. To keep costs down, AstroForge will attach its refining payload to off-the shelf satellites and launch those satellites on SpaceX rockets.

    “There’s quite a few companies that make what is referred to as a satellite bus. This is what you would typically think of as a satellite, the kind of box with solar panels on it, a propulsion system being connected to it. So for us, we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel there,” Gialich says. “The previous people before us, Planetary Resources and DSI [Deep Space Industries], they had to buy entire vehicles. They had to build much, much larger and much more expensive satellites, which required a huge injection of capital. And I think that was the ultimate downfall of both of those companies.”

    The biggest challenge, AstroForge says, is deciding which asteroids to target for mining. Prior to conducting their own missions, all early-stage mining companies have to go on is existing observation data from researchers and a hope that the asteroids they have selected contain the minerals they seek. 

    “The technology piece you can control, the operations pieces you can control, but you can’t control what the asteroid is until you get there,” says Jose Acain, AstroForge Co-Founder and CTO.

    To find out more about the challenges facing space mining companies and their plans to make space mining a real business watch the video.

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