Japan fails to launch spy satellites

"Shortly after the launch, we sent a destroy order to the rocket as we concluded that the mission cannot fulfil the purpose," said Shoko Yamamoto, a spokesman for the satellite launch project.

Television footage showed a Japanese H-2A rocket with the two spy satellites lifting off smoothly from a launch site on the southern island of Tanegashima some 1,000 km southwest of Tokyo at 1:33 pm (0433 GMT).

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But the governmental Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center decided to destroy the rocket and the satellites about 10 minutes later due to "some troubles in the rocket," public broadcasting network NHK said.