By Aazam
Japan's space agency stated Tuesday that the second stage's attitude control system caused the Epsilon rocket's Oct. 12 launch failure
The Epsilon rocket used three solid-fueled stages and a liquid-fueled "post boost stage" to launch eight satellites into a polar orbit 350 miles above Earth
The 85-foot rocket left the Uchinoura Space Center and swung south to avoid populated islands
The rocket's first and second stages burned sequentially to accelerate the launch vehicle to 10,800 mph in five minutes
After leaving the thick lower atmosphere, the Epsilon rocket lost its nose cone
After a minute-and-a-half coast phase, the Epsilon's third stage was separated and ignited to accelerate to orbital velocity
The Epsilon's second stage has eight tiny reaction control system thrusters to ensure rocket alignment during the coast phase
At T+plus 6 minutes, 28 seconds, a range safety officer sent a rocket destruct instruction
Epsilon rockets, along with the bigger H-2A and upcoming H3 rockets, launch tiny satellites in Japan. The Oct. 12 launch was the sixth
The second stage's RCS has eight tiny hydrazine-fueled thrusters in two sets of four
The launch failure was not caused by the second stage spin-up motors, which rotated the third stage as expected