A Taiwanese start-up aims to become the first foreign firm to launch a rocket from Japan by early next year, as part of a plan industry advocates said would aid Tokyo’s ambitions of becoming a space hub in Asia.
The planned suborbital launch by Taiwan Innovative Space Inc (TiSPACE) has faced regulatory hurdles and delays amid questions over whether Japan should embrace overseas business as part of its effort to double the size of its ￥4 trillion (US$26 billion) space industry over the next decade.
The private firm, cofounded in 2016 by current and former officials from Taiwan’s space agency, has not had a successful launch. Its most recent attempt to fly a rocket, via its sister company AtSpace in Australia in 2022, failed because of an oxidizer leak. The rocket to be tested in Japan is a different design.
Photo: TiSPACE via Reuters
“This [planned launch] should be a very good case for the Japanese government,” TiSPACE chairman Chen Yen-sen (陳彥升) told Reuters in an interview. “If that goes smoothly, then you will attract more customers from other countries.”
Chen said the firm is waiting on one last regulatory approval, a radio permit that would enable the launch of the company’s 12m sounding rocket, which he hopes would occur by early next year. A sounding rocket can reach space, but does not achieve orbit.
Some analysts have said launching a Taiwanese rocket in Japan might draw the attention of China, which claims Taiwan as its own, over the strong objections of the government in Taipei, and monitors the nation’s advancements in missile-related technologies.
Chen said he had not heard any concerns so far.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “not aware of the relevant circumstances” of the launch.
“Free economic and research activities are guaranteed in Japan within the scope of laws and regulations,” Japan’s Cabinet Office said.
An official from Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Japan met with TiSPACE in March last year in what the embassy called a “courtesy visit,” but the embassy declined to comment further, saying the launch was a private sector matter.
TiSPACE is the only Taiwanese company attempting launches. One of the company’s other cofounders, Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信), is now the head of the Taiwan Space Agency.
The agency declined to comment on its relationship with TiSPACE, and said all its launch services are conducted through public tender.
The company’s endeavor has won support among Japanese space businesses, especially in the remote agricultural town of Taiki, on the northern island of Hokkaido, which would host the launch. Officials and experts cite the benefits of inviting foreign companies.
TiSPACE’s project was “a symbol of Taiwan-Japan friendship” and a tailwind for an international business complex that local officials call a “space Silicon Valley,” said Yuko Nakagawa, a ruling party lawmaker representing Taiki and neighboring communities.
Japan wants its private space industry to be worth more than US$50 billion by the early 2030s, launch 30 rockets a year and become Asia’s space transportation hub, the latest government plans showed.
Jun Kazeki, the top official overseeing Japan’s space strategy in the Cabinet Office, declined to comment on TiSPACE’s plans.
There might be “future possibilities to utilize overseas transportation technologies,” but Japanese rockets are the government’s priority, Kazeki said.
Government launches are typically carried out by Japanese-built boosters such as the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H3. Private satellite operators often use foreign launch companies such as SpaceX and ArianeGroup outside Japan.
A foreign company launching orbital payloads from Japan would require close government scrutiny and high regulatory hurdles, a senior Japanese official involved in the space sector said.
Because Japan’s Space Activities Act does not govern sub-orbital launches such as TiSPACE’s, the central government does not need to give final approval for the launch. Tokyo plans to change that law to encompass sub-orbital flights and reusable rockets, but revisions are expected to take years.
Opposition lawmaker and former Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) official Motoko Mizuno said she was cautious about Japan opening up to foreign companies, with which local launchers might not be able to compete on price.
Japan is negotiating a space technology safeguards agreement with the US that could also pave the way for US commercial launches in Japan.
Although JAXA has launched domestically and developed rockets for decades, the country’s private rocket industry is nascent.
Space One, backed by IHI Aerospace Co, saw its rocket blow up during its inaugural launch in March. Taiki-based Interstellar Technologies in 2019 became the first Japanese firm to have a sounding rocket reach space, but has not followed up with an orbital launch.
Yoshinori Odagiri, CEO of Space Cotan, which operates the Hokkaido Spaceport in Taiki, said a couple of European companies have expressed interest in its launch complex.
TiSPACE’s progress in Hokkaido encapsulates a “welcome phenomenon” of overseas space businesses using Japanese spaceports, said Tadashi Morimitsu, a local official in Oita Prefecture, another budding space hub in Japan, which is partnering with US spaceplane company Sierra Space.
Globally, more than 50 spaceports are being built, but “they may end up with maybe five to 10 which can be truly successful and self-sustaining in the long term”, Boston Consulting Group principal Alessio Bonucci said.
If TiSPACE’s test launch is successful, the company said it plans to expand its manufacturing capacity in Japan to serve Japanese customers.
One such potential client, Hokkaido-based Letara, has already inquired about whether TiSPACE can carry its satellite propulsion system to space for testing.
“We don’t ask if the company is domestic or foreign, as long as they can launch,” Letara cofounder Shota Hirai said.
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