Japan to Develop 'Reusable Rockets' by 2030... Reflecting Sense of Urgency in Space Competition

China's Growing Concern Over Lagging Behind India... Plans to Halve Launch Costs to Boost Competitiveness

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The Japanese government announced that it is promoting the development of a reusable rocket, similar to the one by the American company SpaceX, aiming for its first launch in 2030. This move reflects a sense of crisis as Japan, despite being the first in Asia to enter the space development field, is falling behind latecomers such as China and India.

According to Japanese local media including the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 12th, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has prepared a plan for next-generation rocket development. MEXT is reportedly developing the next-generation rocket as a reusable model like SpaceX's rockets, aiming for its first launch in 2030. Until now, the H2A rocket, which Japan has used to launch satellites into space, and the latest model H3 rocket scheduled for its first launch this year, are single-use rockets that discard the first-stage booster by dropping it into the sea after separation.

The announcement by MEXT to develop a reusable rocket is analyzed to stem from concerns that Japan's rocket competitiveness is declining amid the rapidly growing commercial rocket launch market. The H2A rocket reportedly has a high launch cost of about 10 billion yen (103 billion KRW) per launch, resulting in poor commercial launch contract performance compared to other rockets.

Accordingly, the Japanese government lowered the launch cost of the H3, which began operation this year, to about 5 billion yen, roughly half of the previous cost. Based on the analysis that recovering and reusing the first-stage booster could further reduce launch costs, the government decided to promote the development of reusable rockets. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported, "Since SpaceX, an American space exploration company, succeeded in launching a reusable rocket for the first time in 2015, countries including China and India have entered the competition to develop reusable rockets," adding, "This plan by the Japanese government reflects a sense of crisis over falling behind in the reusable rocket field."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.