Japan's Space Agency Join Forces With 30 Companies to Develop Reusable Rockets to Slash Costs By Over 70%

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said that they are working with three Japanese companies and institutions to develop reusable rockets, like those used in SpaceX, run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. They said it could reduce launch costs by more than 70% or to less than one-fourth of current levels.

According to Nikkei Asia, the companies joining them in the reusable rockets project include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and ANA Holdings. They aim to launch their first reusable rocket in 2030 to boost cost competitiveness to the level of global market leader SpaceX.

(Photo: Getty Images)
Toshio Yasuma, the advisor to the director of Japan's space agency JAXA from the country's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, looks at monitors in the Range Operations center of the Royal Australian Air Force's (RAAF) Woomera Range Complex in Woomera in South Australia on December 4, 2020, ahead of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa 2 probe's expected sample drop to earth on December 6 after landing on and gathering material from an asteroid some 300 million kilometers from Earth. (Photo by Morgan Sette / AFP) (Photo by MORGAN SETTE/AFP via Getty Images)

JAXA Launches Reusable Rockets Project

Japan is currently using its H-IIA and Epsilon rockets, which are not designed for a second launch. With the inspiration of the success of SpaceX's reusable rockets, they thought that reusing a part of the rocket would significantly help them save costs when developing new ones.

Elon Musk's company currently leads the way in developing reusable rockets, estimated to cost $52.9 million (6 billion yen) compared to the $88.2 million (10 billion yen) for an H-IIA rocket.

Recently, the country has announced that it will partner with 30 Japanese companies and institutions for a joint research project on developing reusable rockets. Here are some of their roles in developing reusable rockets:

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and NYK Line will be responsible for coordinating logistics, particularly in retrieval methods using drones and ships.
ANA will research aircraft operations and maintenance.
NIPPI Corporation and GH Craft will create a gear system used to land the reusable rocket.
Nagoya University will develop a lithium-ion battery that is resistant to vibrations.
Canon Marketing Japan's subsidiary, Canon IT Solution, will use mixed reality to streamline its manufacturing processes.
Chiba Institute of Technology is assigned to study low-cost small electric pumps.
Kanazawa Institute of Technology will review composite materials for the rocket.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology of Japan, who oversees JAXA, said reusable rockets that launch satellites are essential in developing future systems.

Their target date to develop a prototype will be 2026, and they will perform the first launch in 2030, four years after the development of the prototype. According to Japan Forward, JAXA hopes to reduce the cost of rocket launches to about $4.6 million (500 million yen) by early 2040.

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Honda Developing Reusable Rockets for Low-Earth Orbit Satellites

Honda, a Japanese carmaker, unveiled on September 30 its plan of developing a partially reusable launch vehicle for small satellites with a test launch in 2030. The Tokyo-based company is also planning to expand its business portfolio in making flying cars known as the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

According to Space News, they had already begun working in late 2019 on the engineering requirements of the reusable rocket. They will spend $45 billion (5 trillion yen) on its research and development for the next six years. As of now, specifications of the rocket remain undisclosed but previous reports said that it would use liquid propellant and can carry satellites weighing less than 1 ton to LEO.

"Technologies for rocket combustion and control and lower costs are already in the hands of automakers. We will just change the field where the technologies are applied," Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Nikkei Asia in an interview.