Japan's space development

Japan's space exploration started in the mid-1950s as a research group led by Hideo Itokawa at the University of Tokyo. Rocket sizes increased gradually from less than 30 cm (12 in) at the start of the project to over 15 m (49 ft) in the mid-1960s. The aim of the original research project was to launch a man-made satellite.

By the 1960s, two organizations, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), were developing their own rockets. After experiencing numerous failures in the 1990s and 2000s, ISAS and NASDA merged - along with the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) - to form the unified Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2003.

The Japanese space development was started by Tokyo University professor Hideo Itokawa. Many aeronautical engineers lost their jobs after World War II as the development of aircraft was banned under the US Occupation of Japan. The signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951 allowed the development of aviation technology again under the sovereignty of Japan. The seven-year stagnation of Japan's aerospace industry had seriously harmed the Japanese's technical ability. Itokawa established an aviation research group at the Institute of Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo, which succeeded in a horizontal launch of the Pencil Rocket on 12 April 1955 in Kokubunji, Tokyo. The dimensions of the rocket were 23 cm (9.1 in) in length by 1.8 cm (0.71 in) in diameter. This was the first rocket experiment in Japan. This rocket was initially associated with the development of rocket aircraft and not with space exploration. However, with Japan's participation in the International Geophysical Year, the focus of the rocket project shifted towards space engineering.

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