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Added on the 07/03/2023 03:53:19 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
A rocket made by a Japanese company exploded just after launch on Wednesday in Japan's Wakayama. Tokyo-based startup Space One had been aiming to become the first Japanese private firm to successfully place a satellite into orbit. Its 18-meter (60-foot) solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from the startup's own launch pad in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite. But seconds after the launch, the rocket erupted into a ball of flame, with black smoke filling the launch pad area. Burning debris was seen falling onto the surrounding mountain slopes as sprinklers began spraying water. IMAGES
A Russian rocket carrying Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, his production assistant Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome towards the International Space Station. IMAGES
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan on Wednesday carrying a Japanese billionaire to the International Space Station. The rocket carrying online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 46, and his assistant took off at 0738 GMT and is scheduled to arrive at the ISS about six hours later at around 1341 GMT. IMAGES
"All the ground teams really across the world made it easy on us to live and work onboard the ISS," astronaut Thomas Pesquet says during a change of command ceremony aboard the International Space Station. SOUNDBITE
Japanese director and actor Takeshi Kitano walks the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival before the projection of his latest feature film "Broken rage". IMAGES