Japan's Space One terminated the flight of its Kairos small rocket shortly after liftoff on Wednesday, marking the end of its second attempt in nine months to become the country's first company to deliver a satellite to space with a privately-developed rocket.

It is the latest in a series of recent setbacks for Japanese rocket development, even as the government pushes for 30 rocket launches annually and an 8 trillion yen (US$52 billion) space industry by the early 2030s.

The Kairos rocket self-destructed about three minutes into the flight, after it detected abnormalities in the first-stage engine nozzle control and the rocket's trajectory, Space One director Mamoru Endo said at a briefing.

Live images from the local Wakayama prefecture government had shown the 18-metre solid-propellant rocket blasting off from Spaceport Kii in western Japan at 11am, but whirling during its ascent.

The cause of the failure remains unclear and requires further investigation, Endo said, adding that Kairos probably flew to an altitude of more than 100 kilometres until the self-destruct system kicked in.

Five small satellites were on board the rocket, which was headed into sun-synchronous orbit roughly 500 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

Tokyo-based Space One was founded in 2018 by Canon Electronics, IHI's aerospace unit, construction firm Shimizu and a state-backed bank, with the goal of launching 20 small rockets a year by 2029 to capture growing satellite launch demand.

At its debut flight in March, Kairos, carrying a Japanese government satellite, exploded five seconds after launch.

Inappropriate flight settings triggered the rocket's autonomous self-destruct system even though no issues were found in its hardware, Space One later said.

"We don't see what happened this time as a failure," company president Masakazu Toyoda told reporters on Wednesday, repeating the phrase he used in March.

He added that the data from the failed launch would be useful for a third mission and that another attempt was on the cards. (Reuters)