A Taiwanese startup aims to become the first foreign firm to launch a rocket from Japan by early next year, as part of a plan industry advocates say will aid Tokyo's ambitions of becoming a space hub in Asia.
The planned suborbital launch by TiSpace has faced regulatory hurdles and delays amid questions over whether Japan should embrace overseas business as part of its effort to double the size of its ¥4 trillion ($26 billion) space industry over the next decade.
The private firm, co-founded in 2016 by current and former officials from Taiwan's space agency, has not yet had a successful launch. Its most recent attempt to fly a rocket, via its sister company AtSpace in Australia in 2022, failed because of an oxidizer leak. The rocket to be tested in Japan is a different design.