Japan space agency rocket engine explodes during test

The explosion took place about a minute into the test of the second stage engine, an official said.

A rocket engine exploded during a test in Japan on Friday, but there were no injuries in the incident, an official at Japan's Education, Science and Technology Ministry said.

The explosion of the Epsilon S engine at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) testing site in northern Japan is a further blow to the country's space ambitions, following a series of failures earlier this year.

The explosion took place about a minute into the test of the second stage engine, the official said.

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Television footage showed flames shooting out the side of a testing facility before the whole small building was engulfed in flames and the roof blew off.

Japan's space programme has suffered a number of setbacks recently, including failure of its medium-lift rocket on its debut flight in March, when second-stage engine did not ignite as planned. Another launch was aborted a month earlier.