![]() ![]() Japan has close ties to Myanmar and is one of its biggest aid donors. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi is one of the seven crew members now on board the space station. It has since been kept by JAXA inside Japan’s Kibo experiment module. The satellite was launched by NASA on Feb 20 as a small part of a large and varied payload of supplies to the International Space Station 400 km (250 miles) above the earth. MAEU did not respond to calls seeking comment, nor did a spokesman for Myanmar’s junta. Officials at JAXA could not be reached for comment. Since the coup, university officials had been unable to contact the rector of MAEU, Prof Kyi Thwin, the second official added. However, data from the spacecraft would be collected by the Japanese university and cannot be independently accessed by Myanmar officials, the second official said. The second Hokkaido University official said the contract with MAEU did not specify that the satellite cannot be used for military purposes. The manager did not say when the satellite was meant to be deployed, or when a decision would have to be taken by JAXA either to go ahead or delay it. If it is halted, our hope is that the project could be restarted at some point.” “We are discussing what to do, but we don’t know when it will be deployed. The satellite was not designed for that,” one of the officials, a manager of the project, told Reuters, asking not to be identified. “We won’t get involved in anything that has to do with the military. That has put the deployment on hold, as Hokkaido University holds discussions with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the two Hokkaido University officials said. Human rights activists and some officials in Japan worry that those cameras could be used for military purposes by the junta that seized power in Myanmar on Feb. It is the first of a set of two 50 kg microsatellites equipped with cameras designed to monitor agriculture and fisheries. The $15 million satellite was built by Japan’s Hokkaido University in a joint project with Myanmar’s government-funded Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU). Skeptics worry the orbital market is too small to support four separate privately-built space stations.īlue Origin, which leads the partnership, is expected to keep working on its own version of a space station without Sierra, two sources said, but it was unclear what those plans look like.TOKYO (Reuters) – Myanmar’s first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan’s space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said. officials also fear that retiring the ISS with no private station in place could hand China's national space station much of the market for low-Earth orbit research and tourism. Industry executives have acknowledged that the 2030 deadline is tight. The agency plans to add more funding for one or two space station proposals in 2026. With the aging ISS slated to retire around 2030, NASA is helping fund Orbital Reef and three other early proposals. Blue Origin said at the time it planned to privately invest "well north" of that amount. Blue Origin secured $3.4 billion from NASA this year for that lander as part of the agency's Artemis program. Other employees went to Blue Moon, the company's proposed astronaut moon lander, the sources said. A job opening posted 25 days ago describes the effort as a "cutting-edge satellite management system, capable of operating a large constellation of vehicles with a small team." Some Blue Origin employees who had worked on Orbital Reef were assigned to a secretive "space mobility" program to develop maneuverable satellites, two sources said. Recently the partnership has soured, with feuding and disagreement between the companies' managements, three sources said. It said a third of that total would fund its contributions to Orbital Reef: an inflatable habitat that formed the livable core of the space station's design. In low Earth orbit, Orbital Reef would function as a microgravity science laboratory for companies and government agencies, and a destination for tourists, among other uses.Ī month after the announcement, Sierra announced a series A fundraising worth $1.4 billion. In 2021, Blue Origin announced its partnership to build what it envisions as a "business park in space" with Sierra Space, a spinoff from defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. Delays are also mounting in the development of its bigger rocket, New Glenn, an expected commercial workhorse that will mark Blue Origin's first, long-awaited step into Earth's orbit. The company's suborbital tourist rocket, New Shepard, has been grounded for more than a year after a 2022 accident.
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