The U.S. Space Force and its Japanese partners celebrated on Nov. 18 the integration of a U.S. payload with the first of two Japanese host satellites that will launch from Japan’s Tanegashima National Space Center in early 2025.
Space Systems Command said Monday the Japanese satellite, QZS-6, with the U.S. space domain awareness optical payload has also been cleared for delivery to the launch site.
In December 2020, the U.S. Space Force and Japan’s Office of National Space Policy signed a memorandum of understanding to launch two U.S. payloads on Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System, or QZSS.
“We went from a signature on an international agreement to a launch-ready capability with our Japanese partners in less than four years,” said Joy White, executive director of SSC.
“Hats off to the entire program team. This is an amazing accomplishment. Not only does this mission serve as the benchmark for successful allied partnership, but it also delivers a much-needed space domain awareness capability. It took a lot of effort and collaboration between our two nations to get to this point,” added White.
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory designed and built the space domain awareness optical payloads for Japan’s host satellites.
SSC said Japan is performing assembly, testing and integration work on the second host satellite, QZS-7, which is expected to launch in early fiscal year 2026.
