Japan's new flagship H3 rocket lifted off Tuesday for the first time but was ordered to self-destruct minutes later after its second-stage engine failed to ignite, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said, with the failure marking another blow to the country's aspirations in the space industry. The failure followed a string of delays to the development of the successor to the reliable H2A rocket, including a previous launch attempt on Feb. 17 that was aborted moments before blastoff at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima due to malfunctioning electrical equipment. The second launch...
