North Korea has said that its second attempt to launch a spy satellite on Thursday has failed and that it will make a third attempt in October, according to the North Korean state news agency. The agency explained that the fiasco took place due to a failure during the three stage rocket flight, according to the country’s aerospace agency.
North Korea had already tried in late May to launch what it described as its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit, but the rocket carrying it fell into the sea minutes after liftoff.
Since then, North Korea had vowed to make a second attempt to a “space rocket”, according to North Korean terminology. Its launch coincides with the arrival of la sonda india Chandrayaan-3 to the south pole of the Moon.
The Japanese army detected a launch carried out by Pyongyang, according to the Japanese agency Kyodo, which quoted government sources. The projectile flew over the Japanese archipelago.
North Korea had reported on Tuesday to the Japanese coast guard that between August 24 and 31 would launch a spy satellite.