Japan spy satellite launch ends in failure

[Kellanved]

North Korea is believed to be developing nuclear weapons, and the satellites, along with two others launched in March, had been
promoted as a significant boost to Japanese intelligence gathering.

The failure is an extreme embarrassment for Japan just weeks after neighbouring China put a man into space. There was no immediate word on the cost of the launch.
A spokesman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said that part of a booster rocket had not separated as expected.

The Japanese-made H2-A rocket was shown blasting off into a cloudy sky to applause from observers at the launch site on the tiny island of Tanegashima, some 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo, where Japan's launch centre is located.

Just minutes later, though, an announcement was made that the rocket would not be able to complete its mission and had been destroyed by the launch controllers. ''We verified ignition of the second stage, but after that we just didn't know,'' a harried official told reporters at Tanegashima.
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