JAPAN - Kairos Rocket Explodes
Kairos, a small, solid-fuel rocket made by Japan’s Space One, exploded just seconds into its inaugural launch as the firm tried to become the first Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit.
The 18-meter (59 ft) rocket exploded five seconds after lifting off, leaving behind a large cloud of smoke, a fire, fragments of the rocket and sprays of firefighting water near the launch pad on the tip of mountainous Kii peninsula in western Japan, visible on local media livestreams.
“The rocket terminated the flight after judging that the achievement of its mission would be difficult,” company president Masakazu Toyoda said.
“We don’t use the world ‘failure,’ because each trial brings us ... new data and experience for another challenge,” Toyoda told a news conference.
In 2019, Interstellar Technologies conducted Japan’s first privately developed rocket launch with its MOMO series, although without a full-scale satellite payload.
The government last year promised “comprehensive” support for space startups with technology critical for national security, as it seeks to build satellite constellations to ramp up intelligence capabilities.
“Rocket Lab, too, did not achieve its mission at the inaugural (Electron) flight, but it went on to launch three rockets in its second year,” Toyoda said. “We can’t stop here—we need to compete with this company.”
-www.yahoo.com, 13 March 2024
Arno's Commentary
Interestingly, this rocket is named “Kairos,” which means, “God’s appointed time to act.” A Google search reveals: “The Bible uses the word kairos and its cognates 86 times in the New Testament (e.g., in Matthew 8:29; Luke 19:44; and Acts 24:25). The word often includes the idea of an opportunity or a suitable time for an action to take place.”
The words of Mr. Toyoda, “We can’t stop here,” are quite profound, because technology cannot be stopped; it will continue to reach beyond earth into space. But in the end, nothing is there … just utter darkness. Mankind, with all his sophistication, is seeking something in the darkness. Here the words of Jesus are appropriate: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:4-5).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
