No. 777: The satellite launch business goes into full swing toward 2017 (September 23, 2013)

Technology:

Epsion rocket

Japan will participate in the satellite launch business in 2017 and market its technology to launch a satellite using the Epsilon that it successfully launched on September 14. It already started negotiation with Vietnam to launch an observation satellite for Vietnam. The Vietnamese satellite will be built by NEC. Vietnam is scheduled to launch an observation satellite toward 2017 with the help of Japan’s official development aid (ODA). Demand for small satellites to monitor disasters like earthquake is expected to grow in newly industrialized countries.

Though the launch cost was 5.3 billion yen this time, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency opened up the road to reduce it to 3 billion yen toward 2017. NEC established a technology to reduce the production cost of a small satellite one third to 4-5 billion yen by standardizing key parts. That is, it will cost 7-8 billion yen to launch a small satellite including the production cost of the satellite. In addition, the period from the development to the operation of a satellite will be shortened one third to about two years. The low launch cost and short period up to the operation will allow the Japanese satellite launch business to be highly competitive in the global market. The world market of the rocket launch business was 2,100 billion yen in 2012.  

The successful launch of Epsilon on Sept. 14