After Failures, Space Effort in Japan Gets a Lift (aka Missile Defense)

[struggle4progress]

After Failures, Space Effort in Japan Gets a Lift

By JAMES BROOKE
Published: February 27, 2005

..snip.. The successful launch and deployment of a weather satellite over the Pacific from this remote island 650 miles southwest of Tokyo restored morale to a rocketry program battered by its rival in China, which launched an astronaut into orbit in 2003 and plans to orbit satellites around the moon in 2007.

Three of Japan's previous 13 launches ended in failure. In November 2003, Japan's dreams of entering the commercial satellite launch business evaporated when the last H2-A rocket launched from here failed to reach orbit and was aborted in a fireball over the Pacific. ..snip..

Japan's program, run by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is one of the world's few rocket programs that is not an offshoot of a military missile program. But with Japan now embarking on a major missile defense program with the United States, what is learned at the $1 billion space center on Tanegashima, a lonely island of sandstone cliffs and rolling white breakers, is expected to spread to the nation's military arts.

Japan's rocket program is seen increasingly to have military applications. Japan launched its first military spy satellite from here in March 2003. The November 2003 launch that failed was an effort to orbit two more. These spy satellites are intended to give Japan "shutter control," the independent ability to photograph its neighbors, notably China and North Korea, at will and in secret. Now that the H2-A is back on track, another spy satellite is to be launched from here in one year. ..snip..

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/international/asia/27japan.html?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. please, please, please can I stop writing prophecy?

I write science fiction and god damned it I am tired of seeing what I write in fluff apear in the paper...