JAXA going to be allowed to invest more in commercial space

[Asteroza]

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230613/p2g/00m/0sc/044000c

So they are trying to do a JAXA led newspace investment fund, primarily funding domestic startups. Naturally where this money will come from is conveniently not mentioned.

There's also a sneaky allusion to a heterogeneous earth observation constellation patched together from domestic commercial providers, as a poor man's SDA constellation. This may also be backdoor funding for a japanese intersatellite data relay service, as there's at least one that is trying to get up a MEO ISL based system.


The smell of pork from this is definitely beating out the steamed meat bun rack at the local 7-11...

[Vahe231991]

Given the current state of large Japanese SLV development, JAXA could issue a requirement for a privately funded manned spacecraft borrowing design attributes from the Dragon 2, and Mitsubishi could develop a man-rated derivative of the H3 for taking people to space aboard a Japanese counterpart to the manned version of the Dragon 2.

[Asteroza]

Given the current state of large Japanese SLV development, JAXA could issue a requirement for a privately funded manned spacecraft borrowing design attributes from the Dragon 2, and Mitsubishi could develop a man-rated derivative of the H3 for taking people to space aboard a Japanese counterpart to the manned version of the Dragon 2.

Certainly, there's be a long percolating project to convert HTV-X into a manned capsule.

But this smells of the cabinet office wanting a SDA-lite constellation for maritime surveillance and to monitor china/north korea on the cheap.

[Vahe231991]

Given the current state of large Japanese SLV development, JAXA could issue a requirement for a privately funded manned spacecraft borrowing design attributes from the Dragon 2, and Mitsubishi could develop a man-rated derivative of the H3 for taking people to space aboard a Japanese counterpart to the manned version of the Dragon 2.

Certainly, there's be a long percolating project to convert HTV-X into a manned capsule.

But this smells of the cabinet office wanting a SDA-lite constellation for maritime surveillance and to monitor china/north korea on the cheap.

I was talking about a potential privately-funded Japanese manned spacecraft similar in design to the Dragon 2, not the HTV-X. Subaru and Mitsubishi could propose manned spacecraft resembling the Dragon 2 and Starliner, name those designs Hikari ("light") and Kochi ("East Wind") respectively, and have JAXA invest in either design.