Taiwanese rocket fails to achieve Japan's first foreign launch

12/7/2025 16:00

Taiwanese private rocket company TiSpace terminated the flight of one of its rockets shortly after lift-off in northern Japan on Saturday, failing to become the first foreign company to perform a successful launch on Japanese soil.



TiSpace, through its Japanese unit jtSPACE, tried to reach outer space 100 km above the Earth's surface on the inaugural flight of its 12-metre, hybrid-fuelled rocket VP01 in a launch from Japan's Hokkaido Spaceport.



The rocket lifted off at 11:40 a.m., but within a minute its trajectory turned wobbly and it went into freefall, footage from Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed.



"We are examining the situation of the flight," a spokesperson for Space Cotan, the Japanese company operating the Hokkaido Spaceport, said after the launch attempt.



The rocket did not carry a satellite, although Space Cotan has said its success would be a step toward building a satellite-launching vehicle.