Japan Scrubs Epsilon Launch at T-19 Seconds

“Attitude abnormality”
Credit : JAXA

An early morning (12:45 am EDT. 1:45 pm Japan Standard Time)   launch  of Japan’s new Epsilon rocket was scrubbed at T-19 seconds, due to what was described as an “attitude abnormality”  which triggered an automatic stop.

It  was not immediately clear from JAXA’s press release whether the rocket was determined to simply be in a bad mood, perhaps due to Miley  Cyrus and the VMA awards, or whether there was an actual problem  with sensors which control the vehicle in flight.

In either case, the maiden launch  of the new three stage small solid booster carrying the Spectroscopic Planet Observatory for Recognition of Interaction of Atmosphere (SPRINT-A) telescope from the Uchinoura Space Center will be rescheduled at a later date.