DHAKA: Japan on Tuesday cancelled the launch of a new rocket it hopes will be a cheaper and more efficient way of putting satellites into space, saying it suffered a problem that aborted the countdown 19 seconds before it was supposed to blast off.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) official Yuko Hoshikawa said an automatic countdown for the three-stage Epsilon rocket stopped when an irregularity in the rocket posture was detected, reports The Straits Times.

No further details were immediately available on the scrapped launch from a space centre on the southern Japan island of Kyushu.

JAXA president Naoki Okumura said the cause of the problem is under investigation and that he could not say how soon the launch could be rescheduled.

BDST: 1708 HRS, AUG 27, 2013
RoR/RK