A Japanese rocket lifted off and successfully put the national space programme’s first commercial satellite into orbit on 24 November 2015
Japanese H-IIA rocket carrying Canadian TELSTAR 12V communications and broadcasting satellite for operator Telesat was successfully lifted off from Tanegashima Space Centre (TSC).
With this, Japan is entered into the commercial satellite launch business which is mainly dominated by European and Russian companies.
Points to note
- The first commercial satellite launch was overseen by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
- Japan is aiming to become a major player in the commercial satellite launching business which is worth 2.5 billion dollars a year.
- In this regard, it has tried to improve its H-IIA rocket in order to cut the cost of each launch to make its programme competitive.
Some Facts about Indian Space Technology
India had launched its first commercial satellite successfully in 2007 using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying Italian satellite AGILE for space exploration.
With this, India had joined the elite club of nations comprising US, Russia, China, Ukraine and European Space Agency (ESA) having capacity to deploy their space exploration resources for commercial use. Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL) is the marketing arm of ISRO. It oversees commercialization of space exploration resources for commercial use developed by ISRO.
Did You Know?
- Japan consists of over 6,800 islands.
- There are three writing systems in the Japanese language – hiragana, katakana, and kanji
- Japanese Trains are among the world’s most punctual: their average delay is just 18 seconds.
- Japan’s birth rate is so low that adult diapers are sold more than baby diapers.
- Sleeping on the job is acceptable in Japan, as it’s viewed as exhaustion from working hard.
- The Kuril Islands dispute is a dispute between Japan and Russia.
- The islands are disputed between China and Japan are Senkaku islands.