I not convinced of their appproach. Eg rocket lab only took like 4 week from signing contract to launch and hmm was it Astra, well anyways, there was the other US start-up who targeted the same market and have recently cancelled it stating those reasons. And then it,s more about launch cost which are probably higher with a solid non-reusable launcher
Yeah, expendable solids probably don't have much future in commercial space launch. On the other hand, there's significant dual-use potential for solids, so if Japan ever finds itself living in the kind of neighbourhood where it's better to have an ICBM and not need one, than to need an ICBM and not have one, then at least this'll given them something in their industrial base to work with.
I not convinced of their appproach. Eg rocket lab only took like 4 week from signing contract to launch and hmm was it Astra, well anyways, there was the other US start-up who targeted the same market and have recently cancelled it stating those reasons. And then it,s more about launch cost which are probably higher with a solid non-reusable launcher
Yeah, expendable solids probably don't have much future in commercial space launch. On the other hand, there's significant dual-use potential for solids, so if Japan ever finds itself living in the kind of neighbourhood where it's better to have an ICBM and not need one, than to need an ICBM and not have one, then at least this'll given them something in their industrial base to work with.