AFTER a string of launch failures, Japan鈥檚 three space agencies will be
merged into a single body by 2003. The education and science minister Atsuko
Toyama said last week that the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), the
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), and the National Aerospace
Laboratory (NAL) will join forces to become Japan鈥檚 equivalent of NASA.
NASDA is charged with developing the commercial exploitation of space, but
launch failures forced it to scrap its heavy-lifting H-2 rocket. It then
postponed the debut of the slimmed-down H-2A after three launches in a row were
aborted
(快猫短视频, 18 August, p 10).
ISAS, which concentrates on
space science, suffered a setback in February 2000 when a rocket carrying an
Earth-observation satellite failed to reach its proper orbit. The NAL studies
aircraft and space transportation systems.
Critics have long argued that keeping the agencies separate means resources
are spread too thinly. Conditions for the merger improved earlier this year when
Japan鈥檚 Science and Technology Agency, which controls NASDA, was incorporated
into the Ministry of Education, which controls ISAS and NAL. The name of the new
agency has yet to be decided.
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