A small Epsilon S rocket engine exploded on July 14 during a test in a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency testing center in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, burning the morning quiet and sending up plumes of smoke.
The officer received an emergency call from a nearby resident who reported hearing a loud noise and seeing smoke rising from the Noshiro Rocket Testing Center.
JAXA said that an explosion occurred during a combustion test of the second-stage engine of the Epsilon S rocket, which is an improved model of the small solid-fuel epoxy Epsilon rocket, at the facility in the northeastern Tohoku region.
The fuel injection test of the rocket engine was scheduled at the testing center at 9 a.m., according to the Noshiro Police Station and fire department.
I heard a loud noise and the windows rattled intensely, said the 79-year-old man who lives in a village about 1 kilometre from the site.
I felt a blast wave. I was surprised by the impact even though I live a little distance from the testing center. Firefighters said they sent 10 fire trucks out to extinguish a blaze in one of the buildings in the center of the city. No injuries have been reported, a spokesman said.
JAXA said that the combustion test was being conducted at 9 a.m. in the vacuum firing test building in the center.
The test was to last about two minutes, but the explosion came about 57 seconds after the start of the combustion, JAXA said.
In the combustion testing, entry was restricted within a radius of around 600 meters from the test building.
It's currently conducting combustion tests of the Epsilon S and testing with reusable rockets that can be recovered and launched repeatedly.
The launch of JAXA's rocket and spacecraft has faced a series of failures since last year.
In October, an Epsilon 6 rocket failed and Japan's new H-3 rocket was ordered to self-destruct after launch in March.
In addition, unstable communication with a small Omotenashi moon probe shattered hopes for the nation's first lunar landing in November.