Japanese Space Program

JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (former Nasda) is Japan's version of Nasa.

Japanese Program includes H-IIA rocket launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. is

History:

* Ohsumi was the name of the first Japanese satellite. It was launched on February 11, 1970.

* Toyohiro Akiyama was the first paying passenger on a spaceflight. Toyohiro Akiyama was a Japanese journalist who was sponsored by his television work. He spent a week aboard the Russian Mir Space Station in December. The spaceflight cost $10 million.

* Mamoru Mohri was the first Japanese astronaut to fly in space as a crew member on Shuttle mission STS-47, September 1992.

* Takao Doi was the first Japanese astronaut to make a space walk. On Shuttle mission STS-87, Doi performed two EVAs for a total of 12 hours, 44 minutes.

* IRTS (Infra Red Telescope in Space) was the first Japanese infrared astronomy satellite. It operated for just one month in 1995.

* Hope-X was a proposed spaceplane for spaceflight research.

Book:

The Japanese and Indian Space Programmes: Two Roads into Space
by Brian Harvey from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Japanese Space Program Links:

Nasda's Web Page:

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