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[i]JAXA terminated a satellite launch in mid-flight Sunday after a communications malfunction forced the space agency to abort ignition of the host rocket's second stage. The No. 4 vehicle of the SS-520 rocket series lifted off at 8:33 a.m. from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture carrying a miniature Earth observation satellite, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. The rocket was touted as the smallest one capable of launching a satellite. But the agency aborted ignition of the second stage three minutes into the launch after discovering a glitch in the communications system. The rocket and its tiny payload then tumbled into the sea. "It's very regrettable. We'd like to determine the cause" of the failure, said Hiroto Habu, an associate professor at JAXA, said later in the day. The space agency said the rocket stopped sending signals to its operations center just 20 seconds after liftoff. It has no further plans to launch a rocket of this size, it said.[/i]
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