JAXA Archives - Eastern Range

August 1, 2025

Crew 11 Beats The Storms, Now Headed To ISS

SpaceX, NASA and the Crew 11 astronauts beat the clouds and rain showers today, but just barely. With dark skies and rain rapidly advancing from the south, liftoff of SpaceX’s 18th crewed flight was at 11:43 AM ET from Launch Complex 39A from Kennedy Space Center. Crew 11’s four astronauts are now on their way the International Space Station, with an expected arrival time at the orbital outpost around 3AM ET tomorrow, August 2.

The countdown today was a near carbon copy of yesterday’s: picture perfect with few if any issues until the last half hour. At that time, with afternoon temperatures rising into what is best called “miserable”, coastal winds started to rise up in the atmosphere, creating clouds that would grow into rain showers and later, thunderstorms. Yesterday, the clouds were too close to LC-39A and caused a launch scrub because of a weather violation. Today, with a Phase 1 lightning issued only minutes before, the burgeoning showers stayed just far enough away to allow the countdown to proceed and liftoff to occur on schedule.

Later, when Booster 1094 returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station rather quietly — from the vantage of the KSC Press Site, the descending booster was hidden in the clouds until the very last, appearing only a second or two before it’s final landing burn began. The normal sonic boom was muted too, and was nowhere near as loud as normal. Today’s landing marks the last at Landing Zone 1 as SpaceX prepares to move Falcon 9 landing operations to a new area nearly adjacent to Space Launch Complex 40.

Meanwhile, the second stage and astronauts aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour continued on their way to orbit, which they achieved at the T+ 00:08:46 mark. At T+ 09:36, Crew Dragon separated from Falcon 9’s second stage.

On Their Way To ISS

Now in orbit, Crew 11 will begin chasing down ISS in earnest, with an expected arrival time around 3 AM ET on August 2nd.

After docking, the station’s total crew will climb to 11 for a brief period as they join current occupants: NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, and Jonny Kim; JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Alexey Zubritsky.

Crew-10, the previous NASA-SpaceX mission, will remain aboard for a short handover after Crew-11 arrives, then return to Earth. Before their departure, mission teams will monitor weather conditions at designated splashdown zones off the California coast to ensure a safe landing.

Crew-11’s mission focuses heavily on scientific research supporting long-duration human spaceflight and applications on Earth. Their work includes simulating lunar landings, studying how to protect astronauts’ vision in space, and advancing human spaceflight research through NASA’s Human Research Program. Additional experiments will explore plant cell division, the impact of microgravity on virus-bacteria interactions, and methods to produce more human stem cells and generate nutrients on demand.

December 2, 2024

iSpace Lunar Lander Arrives At KSC For Launch Preparation

Artist's rendering of Mission 2 Resilience in lunar orbit. Graphic via ispace

The Mission 2 RESILIENCE lander arrives at KSC.
Photo via ispace

Japan’s latest lunar lander and rover has arrived at Kennedy Space Center, where it will enter final preparations for a launch scheduled for no earlier than January 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Officially named the Mission 2 RESILIENCE lunar lander, the spacecraft will be carrying the TENACIOUS micro rover and commercial payloads for iSpace.

“The Mission 2 RESILIENCE lander is the culmination of the HAKUTO-R program, incorporating the data and know-how gained from Mission 1,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder & CEO of ispace. “We are pleased that the transport to the launch site in Florida, has been completed successfully. The lander is carrying not only the payload entrusted to us by our customers, but also the excitement of many stakeholders. We will continue to make final preparations until the day of the launch, when the lander, which carries so many hopes, will be launched.”

The Mission 2 RESILIENCE lander being prepared for shipment at a JAXA facility prior to being sent to the US.
Photo via ispace

Mission 2 Resilience is a privately funded lunar mission, with Sumitomo Bank and other investors footing the bill. It will deliver six payloads to the lunar surface. The mission will include the first experiment to attempt electrolysis on the Moon and the Tenacious rover, which will collect regolith samples to sell to NASA. It will also drop off an art project, a figure shaped like a little red house.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation has named “Venture Moon” by Sumitomo Mutsui Bank, official partner, (SMBC). According to ispace, “The word “venture” is emblematic of new beginnings and opportunity. With the support of SMBC, ispace, aims to develop the new cislunar economy connecting the Earth and the Moon and expanding human existence into space.”

April 26, 2024

Astroscale Japan Catches Up To Space Junk, Will De-Orbit It

A spent second stage as imaged by Astroscale Japan’s Adras-J spacecraft in April 2024.
Photo: Astroscale Japan

In his classic book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” writer Douglas Adams once said that “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

Adams is right, of course. Space is infinitely huge, but at the same time, near-Earth orbit is an increasingly crowded place. As of March 7, 2024, 9,494 active satellites were orbiting Earth, and there are another 3,300 inactive satellites.

There Is A Lot More Space Junk Than Active Spacecraft In Orbit

Those numbers pale in comparison to so-called “space junk”—debris or machinery left by humans in space, including spent rocket stages, pieces discarded by rockets or people still in orbit, and the detritus from previous satellite collisions. Even pieces of paint that have flaked off of spacecraft count because despite their tiny size, they can pack an incredible punch should they hit another object in orbit.

In total, the 6,300 successful rocket launches since 1957 have delivered 14,450 satellites into Earth’s orbit. Over that same period, more than 630 explosions, collisions, or other unplanned events have caused objects to split apart or fragment, creating a huge amount of debris in orbit.

To be fair, much of that debris has re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up, but a lot of it still up there. NASA estimates that an active satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) will collide with a piece of debris larger than 1 cm every five to six years. Operational spacecraft are routinely struck by very small, sub-millimeter-sized orbital debris with little or no effect.

ISS And Space Junk

For larger pieces of materials, many spacecraft like ISS change their orbital position to avoid an accidental collision. Even then, there have been incidents where astronauts and cosmonauts have been ordered into their capsules to “shelter in place” because of the potential for a catastrophic collision.

On November 15, 2021, seven astronauts were forced to take shelter in their transport spacecraft when the station passed close to orbital debris. The astronauts spent two hours in the capsules and had to close and reopen hatches to the station’s labs every 1.5 hours as they passed near or through the debris.

How Much Space Junk Is Up There?

As of January 2022, NASA estimates that there are more than 25,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters in orbit around Earth, and millions of smaller pieces. This includes:

1–10 centimeters: Approximately 500,000 particles
1–1 millimeter: More than 100 million particles
Smaller than 1 centimeter: More than 128 million pieces

Over two hundred and twenty million pieces of space junk is quite a huge number, and that changes the odds of any one of them hitting an active — or worse, crewed — spacecraft at any given time. Suddenly, “mind-bogglingly big” becomes a simple matter of time.

How Do We Keep Up With It All?

The US Department of Defense operates the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) to track objects in space. The SSN uses radar and optical sensors at different sites worldwide to detect and track satellites and space junk.

The US Space Surveillance Network
Graphic: US Space Force

According to the Aerospace Corporation, “These sensors observe and track objects that are larger than a softball in low Earth orbits and basketball-sized objects, or larger, in higher, geosynchronous orbits. The sensors can determine which orbit the objects are in and that information is used to predict close approaches, reentries, and the probability of a collision.”

Risks Of Space Junk

The result of a 15 gram (~ one half ounce) piece of plastic hitting an aluminum block at 24,000 kilometers per hour (14,912 MPH.)
Photo: Adams, Jason. “Analysis and simulation of a ground-based radar for space debris detection.” (2018).

Can We Fix The Problem?

According to Aerospace Corporation, “We can’t just vacuum or sweep it up into a space garbage truck. To remove space debris, particularly the large and more dangerous objects, we have to get close to it and maintain the same speed as each object. We then, somehow, must attach to it, and move it into a lower orbit or reenter it directly into the ocean. “

Enter Astroscale

Astroscale Japan, a Tokyo-based aerospace company, was selected by JAXA for Phase I of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration (CRD2) program. According to the company, its ADRAS-J spacecraft is “a groundbreaking mission as the world’s first attempt to safely approach, characterize, and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris through Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO).”

Astroscale reported that they have achieved a critical milestone in the ADRAS-J mission, when they “approached the client within several hundred meters.” That client was a piece of large space junk — a spent second stage left in orbit after a JAXA launch.

Next up, according to Astroscale, is the next phase of for the CRD2 program. They say in a press release that “The CRD2 program aims to remove an unprepared Japanese upper stage rocket body, thereby addressing the increasingly critical issue of space debris. Unprepared objects in orbit pose an additional challenge as they have not been prepared with any technologies that enable docking or potential servicing or removal.”

Astroscale added “We are deeply honored to have been selected as the commercial partner of the next phase of this trailblazing program,” said Eddie Kato, President & Managing Director of Astroscale Japan. “Having demonstrated several key capabilities during the ongoing Phase I mission, we are eager to demonstrate our ability to address the next challenge: the removal and deorbiting of large debris. This next phase holds significance in addressing the space debris issue and laying the foundation for a sustainable environment for future generations. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to JAXA for entrusting us with this responsibility.”

If successful, they will demonstrate the first removal of a large piece of space junk, making Earth orbit safer for everything and everyone who travels there.

During its flight, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Earth and Moon. Separate images of the Earth and Moon were combined to generate this view.
Photo: NASA/JPL/USGS

April 11, 2024

NASA and JAXA Announce Pressurized Lunar Rover

Yesterday in Washington D.C., NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Masahito Moriyama signed an agreement regarding a Japanese contribution to the Artemis Project, a pressurized lunar rover tentatively called Lunar Cruiser. The vehicle will be transported to the Moon by NASA, and should be available for the Artemis VII mission, currently scheduled for NET 2031.

Toyota released a video rendering of the Lunar Cruiser in 2023

Lunar Cruiser has been in development since 2019 by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Toyota. The pressurized rover will allow for extended exploration past the range of the previously announced Lunar Terrain Vehicle, and will ostensibly allow for two astronaurs to remain aboard for up to thirty days. Like the LTV, it is expected to last ten years.

From Toyota’s Lunar Cruiser update at the 38th Space Symposium.
Graphic: Toyota Corporation

According to a press release from Toyota, “The Lunar Cruiser seeks to achieve a high level of mobility and allow astronauts to explore safely and comfortably. We will contribute to this endeavor by offering the reliability, durability, driving performance, and FC (fuel cell) technology that Toyota has cultivated through long years of vehicle development. Technologies developed for the moon can then be fed back to the Earth and be used to create better vehicles and develop technologies for sustainable society and the planet.”

“Lunar Cruiser” is a working name for the lunar rover project, which Toyota makes clear. The company says that the vehicle is officially called a “crewed pressurized rover.” According to them, “It features a pressurized cabin, an enclosed space where the air pressure is controlled to create an environment similar to Earth’s. Unlike previous lunar rovers, this means that those onboard need not wear extravehicular suits, even in an unforgiving environment with one-sixth of Earth’s gravity and temperatures ranging from 120°C during the day to -170°C at night.”

The vehicle is slated to use Regenerative Fuel Cell technology and a 30-day mission duration, meaning it can get through an entire lunar night without needing an outside source to power the vehicle.

Fuel Cells To Power Lunar Cruiser

Regenerative Fuel Cells have dual capabilities: also called reverse fuel cells or secondary fuel cells, are fuel cells that can be operated in two modes: electrolyzer mode and fuel cell mode. In electrolyzer mode, RFCs store water as hydrogen and oxygen. In fuel cell mode, the stored hydrogen and oxygen are used to generate power. RFCs can be powered with electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water. With limited resources on the lunar surface, this technology may well come in quite handy: the South Pole, where Project Artemis is focusing, may well have water resources that could potentially be used with Lunar Cruiser.

Toyota – A Fuel Cell Powerhouse

Toyota is the world’s best-selling automaker, selling 11.2 million cars globally in 2023 for the fourth year in a row. They are also a technological leader in many aspects of vehicle design and technology. Industry analysts have also labeled Toyota as the commercial leader in hydrogen fuel cell technology, pointing out that the company has been at the forefront of the mass-market development of hydrogen cars for decades.

Toyota began working on fuel cell technology in 1992, and by 2005, the FCHV (Fuel Cell Hydrogen Vehicle) was available for sale in limited quantities in Japan and the U.S. In 2014, the Mirai was launched for sale in various global markets, making a mainstream hydrogen fuel cell car available to the public.

Toyota’s Comments On Lunar Cruiser Through The Years

At the onset of the Land Cruiser project in 2019, Toyota Chairman and CEO Akio Toyoda said: “The automotive industry has long done business with the concepts of ‘hometown’ and ‘home country’ largely in mind. However, from now on, in responding to such matters as environmental issues of global scale, the concept of ‘home planet’, from which all of us come, will become a very important concept. Going beyond the frameworks of countries or regions, I believe that our industry, which is constantly thinking about the role it should fulfill, shares the same aspirations of international space exploration.”

Toyoda added at the time that “I am extremely happy that, for this project, expectations have been placed on the thus-far developed durability and driving performance of Toyota vehicles and on our fuel cell environmental technologies.”

Since then, Toyota and JAXA have made progress on the vehicle. In an update in the Toyota Times on September 16, 2023, Toyota announced that “[T]he joint research with JAXA was completed in 2022, and Toyota is currently in the preliminary development phase before beginning work on the main vehicle in 2024.”

Enter Mitsubishi, A Japanese Aerospace Giant

Toyota has also joined forces with another Japanese industrial giant, Mitsubishi. In the same 2023 update where the project phase transition was announced, Ken Yamashita, the Project Head of the Lunar Exploration Mobility Works Project at Toyota said “in late 2022, we confirmed that we would be working together with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, not just in the provision of individual components but on system-level development. We decided this would be a good opportunity to present the team structure behind development.”

The idea makes good sense. MHI is well experienced in aerospace projects and is currently working on a number of Japanese efforts that will not only add to the country’s scientific knowledge and aerospace capability but will also serve to inform projects like the Lunar Cruiser.

Atsushi Nakajima, of MHI Space Systems Division said in September 2023, “Currently, we are also working on space exploration-related projects, including a new cargo transporter, equipment for the I-HAB habitation module of the Gateway crewed lunar orbit station, and the LUPEX rover that will search for water resources on the moon’s surface. We will utilize our existing technologies in spacecraft integration, space environment resistance, and human space stays to help develop the crewed pressurized rover’s systems.”

“In addition,” Nakajima said, “we expect that data acquired from the moon’s surface by the LUPEX rover, which is being developed for launch in the mid-2020s, will contribute to the pressurized rover’s development.”

Now that Toyota and its partners have officially transitioned to its final development phase prior to vehicle production, it is fair to say that this vehicle is well on its way to the showroom floor: the South Pole region of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor.