The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan's national aero-space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and the launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions, such as asteroid exploration and possible manned exploration of the Moon. JAXA launch their Epsilon vehicle from the Uchinoura Space Center and their H-II vehicles from the Tanegashima Space Center.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Month

The JAXA HTV-X1 will be unberthed from the ISS before initiating a destructive reentry into the Earth's atmosphere taking waste along with it.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

First flight of the upgraded Japanese HTV-X spacecraft designed to resupply the International Space Station.

HTV-X1

Low Earth Orbit

H3-24 | HTV-X1

Second

The Tanegashima Space Center is the largest rocket-launch complex in Japan. It is located on the southeastern tip of Tanegashima, an island located south of Kyushu, an island and region and Japan. It was established in 1969 when the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was formed, and is now run by JAXA. The activities that take place at TNSC include assembly, testing, launching, and tracking satellites, as well as rocket engine firing tests.

Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2

Canadian Space Agency

European Space Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)

The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the sixteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and utilization, and responsibilities for crew rotation and resupply of the International Space Station. It was conceived in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, during the Space Station Freedom project as it was originally called.

International Space Station

Human Spaceflight

H3-24

The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).

Launch Successful

HTV-X1 Release & Reentry

The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component was launched into orbit in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving in November 2000. It has been inhabited continuously since that date. The last pressurised module was fitted in 2011, and an experimental inflatable space habitat was added in 2016. The station is expected to operate until 2030. Development and assembly of the station continues, with several new elements scheduled for launch in 2019. The ISS is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised habitation modules, structural trusses, solar arrays, radiators, docking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and American Space Shuttles.

Active

Spacecraft Release

As part of its mission extension, JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft will observe S-type asteroid (98943) Torifune during a high-speed fly-by.

Hayabusa2 (Japanese: はやぶさ2, "Peregrine falcon 2") is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese space agency, JAXA. It follows on from the Hayabusa mission which returned asteroid samples in June 2010.

Hayabusa2 carries multiple science payloads for remote sensing, sampling, and four small rovers that investigated the asteroid surface to inform the environmental and geological context of the samples collected.

Hayabusa-2

Heliocentric N/A

H-IIA 202 | Hayabusa-2

Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-1

H-IIA

Hayabusa2 S-Type Asteroid (98943) Torifune Flyby

Flyby

The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000 employees.

ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana.

Third flyby of ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission on its way to the Jovian system.

Arianespace

JUICE is an ESA mission to study some of the Jupiter's moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer)

Ariane 5 ECA+ | JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer)

ELA-3, is a launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. ELA-3 was operated by Arianespace as part of the expendable launch system for Ariane 5 launch vehicles.

The Guiana Space Centre is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located at a latitude of 5°. In operation since 1968, it is a suitable location for a spaceport because of its equatorial location and open sea to the east.

Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Ariane Launch Area 3

Ariane 5 ECA+

Juice Earth Flyby

Expedition 74

Government

Shenzhou 20

The Tiangong space station is a space station placed in Low Earth orbit between 340 and 450 km above the surface. It will be roughly one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station and about the size of the Mir space station.

Imagem do Dia

Descubra o Cosmos!

Eventos

HTV-X1 Release & Reentry

Hayabusa2 S-Type Asteroid (98943) Torifune Flyby

Juice Earth Flyby

Estações Espaciais

International Space Station

Tiangong space station