The nation is ready to support the United States’ lower-cost lunar missions, its space agency chief said, after the US administration proposed a US$6bil cut to Nasa’s budget that could upend the Artemis programme to return people to the moon.
US-led Artemis, established during President Donald Trump’s first term and joined by partners including Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada, has grown into a multibillion-dollar project aiming to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.
“If the US were considering a better alternative in terms of budget or economics, we must respond to it,” Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), told a monthly briefing on Friday.
Trump unveiled his 2026 budget proposal for Nasa earlier this month. It would almost halve the agency’s space science budget and reshape its exploration programmes to focus on Mars with “cost-effective” rockets and spaceships.
Japan signed an agreement with Nasa last year to include two Japanese astronauts and a Toyota-made rover in future missions to the lunar surface.
While Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba reaffirmed a partnership on Artemis missions in February, the budget proposal suggested Nasa could cancel the Gateway, an internationally planned space station that was due for initial deployment near the moon in the fourth Artemis mission.
“Even under a name different from ‘Gateway’, similar infrastructure is needed for lunar activities, and we continue to provide it,” Yamakawa said.
Japan could offer resupply capabilities, high-precision landing technology, rover or the lunar water data obtained from an upcoming joint mission with India, to the US and other international partners, he added. — Reuters
