Space & Aeronautics

The government plans to possess the capability to jam hostile communication satellites in outer space, a new policy stipulated in a draft outline of the next National Defense Program Guidelines set to be approved by the Cabinet as early as Tuesday next week.

Mitsunobu Okada openly admits that Astroscale, the Singapore-based space debris removal company he founded in 2013, was born out of a mid-life crisis."I was 39 years-old, I was wondering, what's life going to be when I'm 40?" the Japanese entrepreneur says.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, unveiled on Tuesday a compact recovery capsule that brought back experiment samples from the International Space Station earlier this month.

A ceremony was held Saturday to mark 50th anniversary of the first rocket launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture.The ceremony commemorating the September 1968 event was held in the Kagoshima town of Minamitane, which hosts the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s space center. It was attended by JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa, astronaut Kimiya Yui and other agency officials, as well as local residents.

The government on Tuesday called for quickly beefing up defenses against cyberattacks and threats from outer space as it unveiled a draft outline of the national defense buildup guidelines, to be updated next month.

Houseflies, the Soviet space program and manned missions to Mars — these aren’t plot devices for a Cold War space thriller, but key terms to understand the history behind Fukuoka-based startup Musca Inc.’s project to provide a solution to some of the world’s most pressing agricultural problems: food and animal waste and dwindling supplies of livestock feed.

Canned mackerel in soy sauce developed by high school students in Obama, Fukui Prefecture, has been chosen as a “Japanese Space Food” by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

A capsule ejected from a space cargo vessel returned to Earth on Sunday, bringing back experiment samples from the International Space Station (ISS) in the first such mission for Japan.

The government is considering the introduction of the U.S. Avenger unmanned combat aircraft to the Maritime Self-Defense Force with an eye on strengthening its surveillance of Chinese naval vessels in waters around Japan and North Korean smuggling activities, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Kounotori 7 unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft detached from the International Space Station on Thursday, carrying a capsule of test samples that will be ejected from the spacecraft for a journey back to Earth.