TOKYO, December 18. /TASS/. Japan’s privately owned Space One company launched its Kairos-2 rocket with five satellites, according to an online broadcast.

It became the first rocket, whose launch was carried out entirely by a private Japanese company. The blastoff took place at the company’s own launch site in the Wakayama prefecture on the Pacific coast of the country’s main island, Honshu.

The Kairos rocket was 18 meters long and weighed about 23 tons. Space One, which has its headquarters in Tokyo, has been designing it since 2018. The first launch was a failure. On March 13, the rocket experienced an engine malfunction seconds after blastoff, and the rocket exploded. Its fragments fell into the mountains next to the launch site.

The company aims to reach the figure of 30 rocket launches per year in 2030s.