TOKYO : The bankruptcy filing by Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc has dealt a blow to Japan's hopes of building a domestic space industry, with plans for a Kyushu-based spaceport designed to attract tourism on hold for lack of funding.
The original aim was to launch small satellites from Oita as early as last year, but that never occurred, in another setback in Japan's attempt to become a player in the crowded market for commercial satellite launches after two recent rocket launch failures. Fukuoka-based iQPS had paid a $5.2 million deposit to launch its small, lightweight constellation satellites weighing under 100 kilograms , representing a major portion of the $17.2 million Series A funding it had raised in 2017.
Locals are still hopeful that a spaceport will eventually emerge."It is possible that some other company will buy Virgin Orbit. Also, there are other companies and competitors besides Virgin Orbit that are considering horizontal launches, so Oita still has many options to reenter into a contract with them," said Kunio Ikari, an economics lecturer at Oita University.
Japan's medium-lift H3 rocket failed in March following an aborted launch the month before, in a blow to its efforts to cut the cost of accessing space and compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX.