Japan said it has had to destroy its new medium-lift H3 rocket that it launched toward space on Tuesday.

The self destruct command was issued after the vehicle’s second-stage engine failed to ignite after liftoff and it was determined that the mission could not succeed.

The 57-metre (187 ft) tall H3 rocket lifted off from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima space port, following an aborted launch last month.

It was carrying the ALOS-3, a disaster management land observation satellite that is also equipped with an experimental infrared sensor designed to detect North Korean ballistic missile launches.

Reuters contributed to this report.