Canon Electronics is leading a venture that will work on developing a rocket specifically to carry small satellites into space.Canon is joining IHI Aerospace, construction company Shimizu and the government-backed Development Bank of Japan in the venture.The new company will be founded on Wednesday with capital of 200 million yen ($1.8 million). Canon Electronics will take a 70% stake. The three other parties will have stakes of 10%.The business is not expected to get underway until at least the end of fiscal 2017. When it does begin operating, it will try to meet some of the surging demand to carry small satellites into space with a small, low-cost rocket.The partners plan to develop the rocket using technology from the SS-520 minirocket owned by JAXA, Japan's space agency.Canon Electronics supplies the SS-520's control equipment.
The new company is led by President Shinichiro Ota, a former industry ministry bureaucrat and once the head of the Japan Patent Office. NGSRDP will initially be based at Canon Electronics' headquarters, studying technologies and costs with the hope of starting commercial operations as early as this year.The joint venture has set a price point of 1 billion yen ($9.1 million) or less per launch -- an amount seen as competitive against overseas rivals. At present, plans call for a rocket smaller than the Epsilon rocket currently under development by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, but larger than JAXA's SS-520 minirocket.
Other big surprise in the sector the small launcher...with this new company...Is a joint venture, between other 4 big Japaneses company's...IHI Aerospace, Canon Electronics, Shimizu Corporation, and the Development Bank of Japan Except the Bank all the other 3 are involved in the space sector...żA new giant for this emergent and crowded space?PD: I hope this give motivation to Shimizu for make space hotel
Amakudari
Industry sources say Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, Shimizu Corporation and the Development Bank of Japan, or DBJ, plan to launch a firm to develop next-generation mini rockets
Orbex and PLD Space could also be competitors, although I suspect those two will mostly stick to the European market. Maybe Space One will mostly stick to the Japanese market? Does anyone have any insight on the size of the Japanese smallsat market?
A groundbreaking ceremony has been held for what will be Japan's first ever rocket launch site to be operated by a private sector company.Space One is building the launch site in Kushimoto town, Wakayama Prefecture.https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191116_19/amp.html?__twitter_impression=trueThis site should have similar range of orbits as RL Mahia site. The airtraffic is going be lot higher especially if heading northeast.