By Tim Kelly
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan said it had destroyed a new medium-lift rocket it launched toward space on Tuesday after the vehicle’s second-stage engine failed to ignite.
The 57-metre (187 ft) tall H3 rocket lifted off from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima space port, following an aborted launch last month. It was carrying the ALOS-3, a disaster management land observation satellite that is also equipped with an experimental infrared sensor designed to detect North Korean ballistic missile launches.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly, Maki Shiraki and Rocky Swift; Editing by Christopher Cushing)