Sam Nussey

TOKYO (Reuters – Space is a crucial area of cooperation between Japan and the United States. It comes amid rising tensions with China which has become more assertive. China also aims to make itself a space force.

Tokyo stated that it plans to send one of its astronauts to the Moon in 2020. This is part of NASA’s Artemis program to bring humans back to the moon.

Japan is home to a large space programme. Its main focus is on spacecraft and launchers. It doesn’t have an astronaut flight program and relies on Russia and the United States to transport its astronauts into orbit. Other than Russian and American citizens, more Japanese people have been to the International Space Station.

According to Kyodo News, space cooperation will likely be discussed during the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kirishida. Biden visits Tokyo this week in the first Asian trip he has made since becoming president.

As the United States tries to catch up with China, Japan’s ambitions and investments in space are welcomed. Beijing hopes to have its first station in space by the end this year.

Japan’s Space Agency, JAXA, reopened last year astronaut recruitment in an effort to revitalize its pool of aged astronauts.

Japan will help build Gateway’s main habitat module, an orbiting lunar base that the U.S. plans to use for moon landings, the European Space Agency (ESA).

Japan built also the Kibo experimental module for the International Space Station. Resupply missions were lifted into orbit by Japan’s heavy rocket launch rockets.

Japan’s space industry was destroyed after World War Two, but the country has maintained its aerospace industry with industrial heavyweights like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (OTC) and Mitsubishi Electric.

Launched from Tanegashima Space Centre, off the southwest island of Kyushu, MHI rockets have carried payloads which include the Michibiki satellites. These have helped to strengthen the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), in Asia.

Engine problems caused delays in the launch of MHI’s new H3 rocket, which was being built by JAXA and MHI earlier this year.

SpaceX and Elon Musk have shaped the U.S. market for launch services.

Japan is also looking to grow its space startup scene, with companies like Astroscale (which removes space debris) and Ispace (which develops rovers and landers for lunar exploration).

Yusaku Maezawa, a billionaire, became the first passenger to travel privately to the ISS for more than a decade. He launched on a Soyuz rocket December and made it possible.