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A Japanese rocket blasted off early Friday carrying a Venus probe and a kite-shaped "space yacht" designed to float through the cosmos using only the power of the sun. The launch vehicle, the H-IIA rocket, took off from the Tanegashima space centre in southern Japan on schedule at 6:58 am (Thursday 2158 GMT), three days after its original launch was postponed by bad weather. Live footage on the website of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed the rocket disappear into the sky. "The rocket is flying normally," JAXA said 20 minutes after blast-off. It carried with it the experimental "Ikaros"...

TOKYO – The first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide emissions was launched into space Friday from a center in Japan,... The satellite — named "Ibuki," which means "breath" — was sent into orbit along with seven other piggyback probes on a Japanese H2A rocket... Ibuki, .. will store information on greenhouse gas levels around the globe for the next five years. The data will be shared with NASA in the United States and other space and scientific organizations.

A Japanese moon probe has replicated the famous Apollo-era "Earthrise" photograph with modern high-definition imaging ... ... The new Earthrise image shows our blue world floating in the blackness of space. Released on Tuesday, it is a still shot taken from video made by the craft's high-definition television camera ...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.) The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon. The image taking was performed twice...

A Japanese spacecraft touted to be the largest aimed at the moon since NASA's Apollo era rocketed into space late Thursday on an ambitious mission to study the origins of Earth's nearest neighbor. The three-ton Kaguya lunar orbiter rode its H-2A rocket moonward at about 9:31 p.m. EDT (0131 Sept. 13 GMT), though it was Friday morning at Japan's island-based Tanegashima Space Center launch site. The probe was slated to circle the Earth twice before beginning a five-day trek to the moon, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has said. Formally known as SELENE, short for SELenological and ENgineering Explorer,...

Japan began its satellite programme in 2003 Satellite launch Japan has launched its fourth spy satellite, which will give it the capability to monitor any location around the globe.An H-2A rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from a base in southern Japan at 0441 GMT, officials said. Tokyo began launching spy satellites in 2003, after North Korea fired a missile over Japan's main island in 1998. Japan sees itself as one of the top targets of the Communist state, which last year tested a nuclear bomb. Satoki Kurokawa, a spokesman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), said the...

ASSOCIATED PRESS TOKYO -- Japan's space agency said Tuesday it had re-established partial contact with a problem-plagued probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid, but a fuel leak could cut communications again. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it had established sufficient contact with the Hayabusa probe to assess its condition and position. JAXA has been gradually restoring communications with Hayabusa since January, after a thruster malfunction the previous month put the probe into a spin that caused a break in contact, the agency said in a statement. It said it now has learned that a fuel leak that...

live launch coverage of the ALOS HII-A launch ALOS / H-IIA F8 COUNTDOWNALOS is the Advanced Land Observation Satellite.

Japan's space agency plans to seek private investors to fund up to two dozen projects including the development of Earth observation satellites and spacesuits, a news report said Tuesday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, is seeking outside funding due to a decline in government outlays for space programs and the agency's desire to promote space-related businesses, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. The funds will be used to create public-private joint venture companies this year to develop up to 24 projects ranging from observation satellites to spacesuits, the paper said. It didn't specify how much money JAXA is seeking...

Breaking the sound barrier—again Dec 8th 2005From The Economist print editionTransport: A new breed of supersonic business jets, without Concorde's drawbacks, could soon be taking to the skies IMAGINE being able to cross the Atlantic in less than three and a half hours. You could fly from London to New York for a meeting and still be home in time for dinner. It used to be possible, before the demise of Concorde, of course. But while Concorde has passed into history, the dream of supersonic travel is alive and well. Several firms are now racing to develop a new breed...

Smash-and-grab expected to be breakthrough 'Glitterball' with 877,490 names to be left behind Under the gentle puff of its ion drive, a Japanese space probe is positioning itself for an extraterrestrial first: a smash and grab on a speeding asteroid. The Hayabusa (or falcon) probe has been chasing the asteroid since 2003 and has this week reached within tens of miles of its surface.Scientists at the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science will spend the next few weeks using Hayabusa's cameras to build up a detailed map of the asteroid. The probe will close in on the asteroid...

The microwave discharge ion engines onboard HAYABUSA asteroid explorer have marked space operation of twenty thousands hour and unit as the accumulated operational time on December 9th. HAYABUSA spacecraft, which was launched on May 2003, succeeded the Earth swing-by on May this year and continues to transfer into the asteroid using the acceleration by the ion engines. They generated 1,300m/s delta-V consuming 20kg propellant up to now. After September the space maneuver using three ion engines was throttled down in order to adapt power reduction of the solar array panels due to enlargement of solar distance. Furthermore one of three...

Japan's revamped space agency [JAXA] plans new rocket to cut launch cost TOKYO (AFP) Sep 17, 2003 Japan's revamped space agency plans to develop a new rocket to halve launch costs and will cut staff to increase its efficiency, the head of the organization said Wednesday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which will formally start operations on October 1, will develop a new rocket that costs about half the 8.5 billion yen (73 million dollars) needed to launch the present H-2A rocket, said Shuichiro Yamanouchi, who will become head of JAXA. "We want to pursue space technologies that...

Economic conditions too tough for Japan to conduct manned space missions TOKYO (AFP) May 23, 2003 The dream of a Japanese manned space mission is unlikely to get off the ground in the foreseeable future because the prolonged economic slump is limiting Japan's space activities, the newly-appointed head of the nation's revamped space agency said Friday. "Manned flights will naturally be part of our discussions" in drawing up the strategies of the new body, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Shuichiro Yamanouchi, currently president of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). "But considering Japan's economy...