Possible mods to Japan's space program approach

Jeffrey Manber sees signs of a change in attitude in Japan over the way space development should be carried out: Japan Space Program Philosophy - On Space/AvWeek - Dec.23.09.

Posted 12/24/09 | 02:07:13 by TopSpacer | Filed under: World Space Transport

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Links -
original:
http://mainichi.jp/select/o...
English:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/pers...

Nothing is being said about commercial space.

Posted by Pete Zaitcev at 12/24/09 03:07:27

Hi Pete,
You should interact with Jeffrey on his blog about what he means exactly with the statement "the move towards commercial". I believe he is referring to the more commercial approach that the Russian space agency has taken with Soyuz flights. That is, flights are more or less sold to NASA, ESA and others (and, of course, seats when available are sold to space tourists) just as if they were operating a commercial launch service. They are achieving a high flight rate with this approach, just like a commercial service, which lowers cost via economies of scale. A high flight rate also brings greater confidence in the system's reliability and safety, particularly as problems are encountered and fixed.

Any full-fledged commercial LEO crew launch service is going to look a lot more like the Soyuz model than the Shuttle one.

- Clark

Posted by TopSpacer at 12/24/09 08:17:11

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