Humans have long been capable of being a space-faring civilization. Thanks to the numerous advancements and breakthroughs in engineering, communications, and perhaps most importantly, rocket technology, people from various countries managed to send objects and humans to space. The space age officially started when the Soviet Union’s space exploration agency successfully launched its first man made object into the earth’s orbit. It was named Sputnik 1, a man-made satellite. Because the post-World War Two era was mostly a rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, it did not take long for the United States, under the guise of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to successfully launch their own space program.
Fast forward to several decades and other countries that had the political and economic capabilities to launch their own exploration agencies followed. One of which is Japan. Japan established the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, otherwise known as the JAXA, to consolidate three independent space exploration and research-related organizations.
JAXA is the product of the integration of Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL). Today, JAXA serves as the sole government agency under Japan’s jurisdiction that is responsible for the regulation, research, and development of hardware, software, and technology advancement to be used in its space exploration program.
Considering that Japan is a developed country (economically) and has the third biggest economy in the planet, next to the United States and China, it would be safe to suggest that JAXA is a well-funded organization. This notion can be supported by the fact that JAXA has been able to participate in many advanced space exploration missions that other budding national (i.e. government-sponsored) space exploration agencies did not get to participate in.
Some examples of highly advanced missions that the JAXA sponsored and or participated in include proposed asteroid exploration and lunar landing programs. Other past and existing projects include space debris monitoring, disaster monitoring and relief operations, and technology buildup.
As a state-sponsored space exploration agency, JAXA basically competes with the U.S.-backed NASA, the European Union’s European Space Agency (ESA), the China National Space Administration (CNSA), and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). These are currently the five most prominent players in the industry of space exploration. Among the five, NASA claims the top spot with the ESA holding the second place.
JAXA, despite the fact that it has access to some of the most advanced equipment and technology compared to the other space exploration agencies (aside from NASA and the ESA), may eventually be outperformed by the CNSA. This is because JAXA has decided to veer away from international space agency cooperation and focus more on research and exploration programs, although it is worth mentioning that by 2012, the JAXA became authorized to embark on limited military space technology development programs (e.g. early warnings systems).
JAXA’s most interesting breakthroughs include its successful use of advanced X-Ray technology for astronomical purposes during the 80s and the 90s. This proved to be useful in helping scientists create a more accurate map of the earth’s magnetic field, atmosphere, among other areas. JAXA also contributed to the advancement of satellite communication technologies; this can be evidenced by the fact that JAXA is the first Japan-controlled space exploration agency that successfully won and completed a contract that required them to build a communication satellite for civilian purposes.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, JAXA’s prominence in the international space exploration scene was deteriorating. This may have been due to Japan’s economic woes. This paved the way for other budding space exploration agencies such as that of China to expand. In recent years, Japan, through JAXA, has expressed interest in expanding its space exploration efforts once again, citing the potential rise of the Chinese as a risk that they cannot take.
According to a report published in RT News, “the US and Japan will boost military cooperation in space to counteract China’s growing capability to shoot down satellites”. This means that JAXA is going to be engaging in international partnerships in the space exploration scene once again, particularly with the United States’ NASA and the European Union’s ESA.
This may serve as a face saver for JAXA. JAXA cancelled a lot of programs either as a result of technical and technological obsoleteness of its equipment or simply because it was not in Japan and JAXA’s best interests and focus to proceed with those projects anymore. For example, JAXA had to cancel its much anticipated lunar exploration program, the first of its kind since NASA’s successful Apollo Exploration, because the agency projected that the spacecraft they selected for the mission would already be obsolete by the time of the launch. This was just one of the many programs (that were promising at the time) that got cancelled by JAXA. With the recent changes in regional and global geopolitics (e.g. rising threat of China), however, it would be not unrealistic to picture JAXA being proactive in the space exploration and technology advancement scene once again.
Bibliography
Hofilena, J. Japanese gov't and JAXA to monitor space debris. The Japan Daily Press, 2014, http://japandailypress.com/japanese-govt-and-jaxa-to-monitor-space-debris-2743110/.
Hofilena, J. New JAXA Satellite launched to help map disaster hit areas. The Japan Daily Press, 2014, http://japandailypress.com/new-jaxa-satellite-launched-to-help-map-disaster-hit-areas-2648717/.
Howell, E. JAXA: Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency. Space, 2016, http://www.space.com/22672-japan-aerospace-exploration-agency.html.
McCurry, J. Japan launches biggest moon mission since Apollo landings. The Guardian, 2007, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2007/sep/15/spaceexploration.japan.
RT News. US, Japan to bolster space cooperation over Chinese threat. 2014, https://www.rt.com/news/198072-usa-japan-space-cooperation/.
