After a failed launch on Wednesday, Japan''s space agency claimed that the craft was not permitted to fly safely.
On its sixth space deployment, the unmanned rocket, intended to launch in three stages, was carrying several satellites into orbit.
According to a JAXA official, the rocket cannot continue a safe flight because of the danger it would create if it falls on the ground.
"So we made various actions to avoid such a tragedy, and we sent the signal (to destroy the rocket)," he said, adding that information on the problem''s origin was not immediately available.
NHK and other media outlets said it was Japan''s first failed rocket launch since 2003.
The launch of the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern Kagoshima region ended on JAXA livestream, which said the event had been unanswered.
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The Epsilon rocket, which has been released since 2013, has been in use.
It is more compact than the country''s previous liquid-fuelled model, and a replacement to the solid-fuel "M-5" rocket that was retired in 2006 due to its substantial cost.
According to a NASA article, one of the rocket''s six satellites, called RAISE-3, had been due to orbit the Earth for at least a year.
In addition, NASA is planning to complete its third effort to complete the Artemis I Moon mission in November. The US space agency had to return the SLS rocket, the most powerful ever designed by the agency so far, to its storage hangar in order to protect it from Hurricane Ian last month.
According to NASA, the next possible launch windows - determined according to the position of the Earth and the Moon - are from October 17 to 31, and from November 12 to 27, respectively.