Japan's space agency says the probable cause of the launch failure of the Epsilon-6 rocket earlier this month was technical issues in a system that uses thrusters to control the rocket.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, gave a detailed explanation of the launch failure at a panel of government experts on Friday.

The JAXA representative said a valve for a tube may not have worked properly, which could have led to the failure.

JAXA had already discovered an abnormality in one of the attitude control devices mounted on the second-stage engine of the rocket.

The agency is looking to see if the failure might affect a launch of a new H3 rocket as it uses a valve by the same maker, albeit a different type.

JAXA is developing the new rocket, and hopes to launch it by March 2023.

Sato Toshiaki, a JAXA official, says the agency is committed to finding the root cause of the failure and ensuring it does not affect the planned launch of the H3 rocket.