"Mashed red beans~ Private Marseilles!"
Underneath the blue backdrop of the JAXA pressroom, Sakai Shinichiro and the cohort of R&D personnel from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries all bowed deeply, causing the cameras to only capture the tops of their heads and the linings of their clothing.
Five hours earlier, the launchpad for the H-2B rocket suddenly caught fire, flames that were utterly unquenchable, burning for more than two hours, and with complex components fueling the fire, thick black smoke spread in a most spectacular manner.
At that time, the H-2B rocket had been fully fueled, and the launch center was on alert for any possible explosion at any moment. Fortunately, although the fire was fierce, due to the wind direction and the positioning of the rocket, there was no explosion, only surface marks were smoked onto the rocket body.
