Japan’s budding private spaceflight industry is still struggling, even with some early signs of success. Interstellar Technologies’ MOMO-5 sounding rocket failed to reach space after its launch from Hokkaido early on June 14th. The engine was “manually stopped in an emergency” about 70 seconds into the flight, the company said. Interstellar pinned the flaw on a swinging “attitude angle” that threatened the launch’s safety, and suspected that a damaged nozzle was to blame. You can see hints of this in the Necovideo Visual Solutions clip below — the nozzle appeared to have shed debris early into the launch, and the rocket lost control soon afterward.

The company did manage to reach space once, with its MOMO-3 rocket in 2019. Its ultimate goal is to wield conventional rocketry in a way that makes it feasible to cheaply launch payloads into orbit.