NYK Line, Japan's largest shipping company, is working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to catch reusable rocket boosters on a ship at sea. The idea began in an in-house training program, became the first shipping-company project selected for JAXA's Space Strategy Fund, and now faces a question NYK's own engineers raise: will anyone launch often enough to make it pay?
On July 5, Hayabusa2 passed 800 meters from asteroid Torifune at 5 km/s, its first major win since 2020. A look at why Japan keeps flying a retired probe, the road to 1998 KY26, and how it compares to NASA's OSIRIS-APEX.
Resonac, BEAM and Nippon LEO signed an MOU to manufacture compound semiconductors in low Earth orbit. Why build chips in microgravity, and how Japan's bet compares to the US and China.
On June 26, 2026, Japan's Diet passed a law renaming the Air Self-Defense Force as the Aerospace Self-Defense Force, the first rename of an SDF branch since 1954. A new 880-strong Space Operations Command will track satellites and threats in orbit. Here is what changes, and why now.
JAXA will launch the Michibiki No. 7 satellite on H3 Rocket No. 9 on August 7. A look at Japan's GPS-independent seven-satellite plan, the ASNAV system that aims to take phone accuracy from 5-10 meters to 1, how it compares with GPS, Galileo and BeiDou, and the satellite Japan just lost.
HOKUSHIN-1, a cubesat from three Japanese universities, was deployed from the ISS on June 19. Why it proves deep-space tech in low orbit first, where failure is cheap.
Since 2016, a Japan-led ALMA team kept breaking distance records for oxygen in the early universe. In 2026 they finally caught the cold neutral gas itself — [O I] 145μm in four galaxies ~13 billion years back. The decade-long quest, and how it complements the Webb-led race.
New image analysis confirms Japan's 228-gram transformable robot SORA-Q (LEV-2) moved about 0.13m and turned 180 degrees on the Moon entirely on its own, earning a Science Robotics cover. Built with help from a toy maker, the palm-sized machine opens a new path for small-scale exploration aimed at caves, steep slopes and, eventually, Mars.
Mitsubishi Electric is building an orbital transfer vehicle under Japan's Space Strategy Fund. We map the race: America's speed-and-price game led by Impulse Space, China's dual-use Shijian maneuvers, and Japan's unconventional bet on the docking skills it honed resupplying the ISS.
A Tohoku University team grew rice to the heading stage in soil mimicking the Moon's surface, using fertilizer made from nothing but air and electricity via plasma. The unlikely inspiration? Gundam's beam saber. As NASA pushes toward a lunar base, it could become foundational tech for growing food in space.
Kyoto and Hiroshima University researchers found that grains Hayabusa2 brought back from asteroid Ryugu begin altering within weeks on Earth. Here is how the decay starts with an iron sulfide, what it means for Bennu and Phobos samples, and how Japan is reacting.
JAXA's H3 rocket No. 6 reached orbit on June 12, 2026, debuting the booster-less, lowest-cost Type 30 and resuming flights after a six-month grounding. But an object seen falling near the engines is now under investigation.
When Artemis II passed behind the Moon, the crew went 40 minutes without a signal. A sustained lunar presence needs always-on infrastructure, not one-shot mission links. We trace what KDDI, the carrier that once relayed Japan's international calls, is building with laser comms and multi-hop relays, and ask how close it really is.
On July 5, 2026, at around 6:30 p.m. Japan time, JAXA's Hayabusa2 will pass about 1 km from asteroid Torifune at roughly 5 km per second — crossing the 500-meter body in just 0.1 seconds. Here's why this ultra-fast flyby is so hard, how a body-fixed camera will catch it, and why it matters for planetary defense after NASA's DART.
Japan's H3 Rocket No. 6 was postponed over poor weather. The booster-less test flight carries six small satellites: deorbit sails, a 1 km space tether, a day-and-night telescope, and a French sat that hunts ships gone dark. Here is what each one does.
Tohoku University spinoff Space Quarters has demonstrated its DAIQ orbital assembly robot system on a ground model, showing three kinds of small robots cooperating to pick, place, and weld building panels into a larger structure. We look at how it compares to NASA's cancelled OSAM-1 and DARPA's NOM4D, and what makes Japan's robotics approach distinct.
Japan's new cargo ship HTV-X1 reentered the atmosphere on the night of May 26, 2026, completing a roughly seven-month mission (JAXA announced it the next day). In its final two and a half months it gathered on-orbit data on next-gen space solar cells, including a domestic perovskite made by Ricoh, and received a radio signal from the ground. Here's why perovskite in space is a different story from perovskite on rooftops.
JAL, JALUX and ispace have unveiled ARGO PROJECT, the first lunar transport service run by an airline. A box called Möbius Ark will carry cultural items to the Moon on ispace's Mission 3 in 2028. Here is why a 75-year-old airline is moving into space logistics.
Japanese Unreal Engine studio Historia has unveiled REAL MOON Studio, a lunar digital twin recreating a 240km by 240km stretch of the Moon's south pole. Built on joint research with JAXA, it lets engineers rehearse rover routes, preview camera shots, and plan lunar bases - a look at how game-engine technology is quietly joining the global Moon race.
On April 13, 2029, the 450m asteroid Apophis will pass just 32,000 km above Earth. Japan and Europe are joining forces on RAMSES, the next planetary defense mission after NASA's DART. JAXA provides the infrared imager, solar panels, and H3 rocket launch as a rideshare with DESTINY+, stepping up as US budget cuts threaten its own Apophis mission.