South Korean startup Innospace failed in its bid to make historical past on Monday night time (Dec. 22).
The corporate launched its Hanbit-Nano rocket from the Alcantara Area Heart in Brazil on Monday at 8:13 p.m. EST (10:13 p.m. native time in Brazil; 0113 GMT on Dec. 23).
O HANBIT-NANO EXPLODIU!O foguete da empresa coreana teve uma ascensão regular, porém, apresentou uma anomalia em torno dos 50 segundos de voo e acabou explodindo, caindo de volta ao solo. pic.twitter.com/58MnY5AOU9December 23, 2025
It is unclear at this early stage what prompted the failure. Innospace didn’t instantly present an replace on X, and the corporate reduce off its webcast within the wake of the incident, shortly after saying that an anomaly had occurred.
Hanbit-Nano is a two-stage rocket whose first stage burns liquid oxygen (LOX) and paraffin. The higher stage is available in two configurations; one burns LOX and paraffin whereas the opposite employs LOX and liquid methane.
The rocket is designed to ship as much as 198 kilos (90 kilograms) of payload right into a sun-synchronous orbit from Brazil. On the debut launch, the Hanbit-Nano was carrying 5 small satellites for purchasers from Brazil and India, in addition to three extra technology-demonstrating payloads.
Innospace was based in 2017. The corporate, which at the moment employs about 260 folks, has developed all of its launch know-how in-house, firm CEO Kim Soo-jong instructed Area.com in October on the Worldwide Astronautical Congress in Sydney.
Innospace’s imaginative and prescient would not finish with getting Hanbit-Nano on-line. The corporate can be creating bigger, extra highly effective rockets referred to as Hanbit-Micro and Hanbit-Mini.
Monday’s launch was initially scheduled for Wednesday (Dec. 17), however Innospace pushed it again a number of occasions, attributable to a technical situation and dangerous climate forecasts.
