Space Oneスペースワン

Space One flies Kairos, an 18-metre rocket with three solid stages and a small liquid stage on top, sized to carry 250 kilograms to low orbit. Solid motors can be stored fuelled, so the rocket needs little time on the pad, and the company launches from its own site, Spaceport Kii, on the Wakayama coast. IHI Aerospace builds the motors, and the pitch is launch on demand, on the shortest schedule from contract to liftoff anywhere.

The company was formed in 2018 by a consortium rather than a founder. Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, the construction group Shimizu and the Development Bank of Japan set it up to give Japan a commercial alternative to its government rockets, flying from a private pad free of JAXA's range schedule.

Kairos has flown three times and failed three times, each differently. Flight 1, in March 2024, was destroyed by its own termination system five seconds up when the first stage underperformed. Flight 2, that December, lost thrust vector control about ninety seconds in and tumbled. Flight 3, in March 2026, was terminated around two minutes after liftoff when the trajectory drifted. Every customer payload the company has carried is gone, including the same Taiwanese satellite twice, the original on flight 2 and its replacement on flight 3. The third flight was partly paid for by crowdfunding, and a fourth has no date.