Japan’s Space One counts down to inaugural Kairos rocket launch

Japan's Space One will launch its Kairos small rocket on its inaugural trip on Wednesday, in a bid to become the first private firm in the country to put a satellite in orbit. While Japan is a relatively small player in the space race, the nation's rocket developers are scrambling to build cheaper vehicles to capture booming demand for satellite launches from its government and global clients. Lifting off from Space One's launch pad in western Japan at 11:01 a.m. (0201 GMT), Kairos will carry an experimental government satellite that can be deployed to temporarily replace intelligence satellites currently in orbit if they come offline.