A rocket developed by a maverick Japanese entrepreneur and convicted fraudster exploded shortly after liftoff Saturday, in a major blow to his bid to send Japan's first privately backed rocket into space.
Interstellar Technologies, founded by popular internet service provider Livedoor's creator Takafumi Horie, launched the unmanned rocket, MOMO-2, at around 5:30 am (2030 GMT Friday) from a test site in Taiki, southern Hokkaido.
But television footage showed the 10-metre (33-foot) rocket crashing back down to the launch pad seconds after liftoff and bursting into flames.
No injuries were reported in the spectacular explosion.
The launch was supposed to send the rocket carrying observational equipment to an altitude of over 100 kilometres (62 miles).
A Twitter user tweeted a GIF of the crash. Watch it here:
The failure follows a previous setback in July last year, when engineers lost contact with a rocket about a minute after it launched.
Interstellar Technologies said it would continue its rocket development programme after analysing the latest failure.
The outlandish, Ferrari-driving Horie -- who helped drive Japan's shift to an information-based economy in the late 1990s and the early 2000s but later spent nearly two years in jail for accounting fraud -- founded Interstellar in 2013.
However, privately backed efforts to explore space from Japan have so far failed to compete with the government-run Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Japan Loses Contact With Humanity's Only Active Venus Probe 'Akatsuki' Stunning Pic Of Japanese Beach Where Snow, Sand And Sea Meet Goes Viral Watch: Japan Unveils Rocket Engine Fueled By Cow Dung Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Trump Says Spoke With Zelensky, Pledges To "End The War" Joe Biden Is The Best Person To Take On Trump, Says His Campaign Wife Among Two Jailed For Life For Man's Murder In Gurugram: Cops Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.