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Japan Seeking 13 Percent Budget Hike for Space Activities
By PAUL KALLENDER-UMEZU
Space News Correspondent
posted: 07 September 2004
01:29 pm ET
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Japan Seeking 13 Percent Budget Hike For Space Activities
TOKYO -- The ministries responsible for Japan's space programs have requested a combined 308.89 billion yen ($2.82 billion) for space activities in 2005, representing a 13 percent increase over this year.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), which oversees most Japanese space activities and coordinates the associated budget requests, made its submission to the Ministry of Finance Aug. 27. The request includes 216 billion yen for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), a 20 percent increase, and 12.5 billion yen for a new activity designed to increase safety and reliability across Japanese space programs, according to MEXT budget documents.
In the weeks that followed the Oct. 1, 2003, formal establishment of JAXA, Japan suffered three successive space mishaps: the on-orbit failure of the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 2 in October; the H-2A launch mishap that destroyed two high-priority national security satellites in November; and the loss of the Nozomi Mars probe, which missed that planet in December due to an electrical glitch caused by a solar flare.
"One of our top priorities is that we would like to expand programs that increase reliability, more testing, more research, more methodologies," Kimikazu Iwase, director of MEXT's Space Development and Utilization Division said Aug. 30.
Iwase said JAXA wants funds for more ground testing in general but especially for testing new designs of the solid-rocket boosters that were blamed in the H-2A failure.
After the Finance Ministry weighs in on the MEXT request, a process that usually results in some reductions, the budget will be submitted to the Japanese parliament, or Diet. Approval by the Diet typically comes in March, just in time for the April 1 start of Japan's fiscal year.
Iwase said the budget includes 20.6 billion yen for work on a new series of Earth observation satellites that officials believe will play a pivotal role in global environmental monitoring over the next decade. This year's Earth observation budget is 17.6 billion yen.
Developing a heavy-lift version of the H-2A that can loft 8 tons of payload into geostationary transfer orbit is another priority. MEXT is requesting 8 billion yen for next year, up from 5.8 billion yen this year. A test launch of the heavy-lift vehicle is slated for 2007, Iwase said.
JAXA's request for international space station-related activities in 2005 is 36.8 billion yen, slightly lower than the 37.5 billion yen budget this year. "The international space station is occupying a large part of our budget each year and there is pressure for us to rationalize this budget," Iwase said.
The request for the Quazi-Zenith Satellite System, a three satellite GPS overlay and communications system, is 3.8 billion yen, compared to 3.3 billion yen this year. The first Quazi-Zenith satellite is scheduled to launch in 2008, and the program is still on track despite a dispute this summer over which ministry would operate the system as a public service. Iwase said discussions on that issue are continuing.
The request for the Galaxy Express medium-class launch vehicle is 4.9 billion yen, compared to a 2.5 billion yen budget this year. The rocket is "on track" and should have its first test launch in the 2006 fiscal year, Yosuke Asai, deputy director of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Space Industry Office, said in an Aug. 31 e-mail interview. The ministry is supervising the rocket's development along with Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd of Tokyo.
Asai nevertheless said he felt that Japan is spending too much money on space science and not enough on space-related economic development activities.
In a Sept. 1 interview Yasunori Matogawa, associate senior director of JAXA and director of external relations at JAXA's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, said the request is "adequate" but "a bit smaller" than he would have liked.
Matogawa said four JAXA science missions slated for launch over the next 36 months all received the necessary funding to stay on schedule. Those missions are: the Astro F infrared astronomy satellite; the Astro E2 X-ray astronomy mission; the Solar-B sun observing mission; and the Selene lunar probe.
Comments: pkk@tkb.att.ne.jp
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