Guided by genius engineer Hideo Itokawa, Japan's space program began with small scientific satellites more than 50 years ago. Since then, its space probes have travelled to the Moon, Venus, the asteroids and even a comet. The country launched weathersatellites to warn of typhoons, communications satellites to connect the Japanese archipelago and remote sensing technology to observe the Earth and warn of climate change. Engineering technology satellites became the basis of Japan's electronic industry as Japanese astronauts flew into space, working on their Kibo module on the International Space Station. Now, Japan is one of Asia's leading space powers, alongside China and India, vying for influence in the region. Its solid and liquid-fueled rockets are estimated to be among the most advanced and reliable in the world, its technology among the best. This bookexamines the history of Japan's space program, the country's current state of development and its future. It describes the extensive infrastructure that has gone into the forging of Japan's picturesque oceanside launch sites, training centers, testing facilities and tracking stations. This book also outlines the politics of space in Japan, financial difficulties, its space industry, the symbiotic relationship with the United States and the recent sharp change-of-course to invest in military satellites. From the role of influential personalities, such as Hideo Shima and Shinichi Nakasuka, to political leaders, such as Yasuhiro Nakasone and Takeo Kawamura, you will read about how Japan has paved its own star-lit path to space. The future may expect tosend Japanese probes to Mercury and the moons of Mars, all while the first Japanese astronauts set foot on our own Moon and drive innovative rovers across its surface.

Autorentext

Brian Harvey has been a writer and broadcaster on spaceflight since the early 1970s. His articles have appeared in Spaceflight, Space Chronicle, Quest, Orbit, Astronomy & Space, Go Taikonauts! and ROOM. He has contributed to radio programs on BBC (Radio 4, Radio 5, World Service, Northern Ireland), Voice of American, Radio Free Europe, Future tense (Australia) and to television and film programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Discovery Channel, Danish TV and China CCTV (Dialogue - ideas matter). His first book was a history of the Soviet space program (Ellis Horwood, 1988), with three subsequent editions; followed by histories of Soviet lunar exploration, Soviet planetary exploration, Russian space science, the American Explorer program as well as histories of the European, Japanese and Indian space programs (all published by Praxis, later Praxis/Springer). He has written four histories of China's space program, the most recent also published in Chinese. He contributed chapters to Space Sleuths (Praxis, 2012) and a book on Yuri Galperin, published by the Academy of Sciences in Moscow (2012).