HISTORY OF TANEGASHIMA SPACE CENTER

摘要

This paper deals with the history of the Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC), one of the two launch sites of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It is located in Tanegashima Island roughly 1000 km south west of Tokyo. The core of TNSC is the launch complex for the H-IIA, Japan's major launch vehicle. Other facilities include spacecraft test and assembly buildings, static firing test stands, and tracking stations. The construction of TNSC started in 1966, aiming at the first launch in November, but it was cancelled due to the opposition from fishermen. It took nearly two years until a launch of a small sounding rocket in September 1968. Since then, various experimental rockets were launched including the TR-IA for microgravity experiments. The first launch of a satellite was in September 1975. A N-I rocket lifted off from a newly built launch complex injecting the ETS-I engineering test satellite into orbit. This complex was used for the N-I, N-II, H-I, and J-I rockets. Another launch complex was built for the larger H-ll and H-IIA launch vehicles. The first H-ll lifted off in February 1994. In February 2005, a H-IIA rocket was launched successfully after grounded for a year and three months due to a launch failure. Altogether, satellite launch vehicles that lifted off from TNSC are 7 N-I, 8 N-II, 9 H-I, 7 H-II, and 7 H-IIA rockets as of September 2005. The results of main launches will be described in this paper along with the construction of major facilities.