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.

* Yohkoh launched August 30 1991 orbited the Sun for over a decade. It made observations via x-ray telescope and provided insight into the behavior of the Sun's corona.

* 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.

* Hayabusa was launched 9 May 2003. The probe sent to gather samples from asteroid 25143 Itokawa. After numerous glitches, the probe returned to Earth. Scientists have not yet opened the sample container.

* In 2006, JAXA launched Akari, an infrared astronomy satellite. Its mission is to survey the entire sky in infrared. On 6 August 2007 it has surveyed 94 percent.

* Selene was launched September 14, 2007. Selene was the largest lunar mission since NASA's Apollo, Selene orbited the moon for 20 months. It provided data used to improve topological and gravity maps.

* Oicets - This experimental satellite was designed to demonstrate optical communications between distant satellites. Launched in 2005, it was retired in 2009.

* In 2010 IKAROS probe was the world's first spacecraft to use solar sailing as the main propulsion

* 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:

Goback to World Space Guide

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