By Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO (Reuters) -Firefly Aerospace is exploring an option to launch its Alpha rocket from Japan as the U.S. rocket maker expands its satellite launch services globally, a Japanese company operating a spaceport in the country’s northern Hokkaido said on Monday.
The plan could make Japan the second offshore launch site – and first in Asia – for Firefly, the Texas-based rival to Elon Musk’s market leader SpaceX, which had its Nasdaq debut earlier this month and is preparing for an Alpha launch in Sweden.
Space Cotan, operator of the Hokkaido Spaceport located about 820 km (510 mi) northeast of Tokyo, said it and Firefly signed a preliminary agreement to study the feasibility of launching the small-lift rocket Alpha from there.
Launching Alpha from Japan “would allow us to serve the larger satellite industry in Asia and add resiliency for U.S. allies with a proven orbital launch vehicle,” Adam Oakes, Firefly’s vice president of launch, said in a statement published on Space Cotan’s website.
A feasibility study would be conducted to assess the regulatory hurdles, timeframe and investments for a launch pad for Alpha in Hokkaido, said Space Cotan spokesperson Ryota Ito.
The plan would require a space technology safeguards agreement (TSA) between Washington and Tokyo that would allow American rocket launches in Japan, Ito added. The governments last year kicked off the negotiations but have not reached an agreement.
A U.S.-Sweden TSA signed in June cleared the path for Firefly’s launches from the Arctic.
Four of Firefly’s six Alpha flights since 2021 have ended in failure, most recently in April.
While Japan’s national space agency has launched rockets for decades, private rockets are nascent and most Japanese satellite operators rely on foreign options such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 or Rocket Lab’s Electron.
Previously, U.S. company Virgin Orbit aimed to use Japan’s southwest Oita Airport for launches but the plan was scrapped after the firm went bankrupt in 2023. Colorado-based Sierra Space has an ongoing plan to land its spaceplane on Oita beyond 2027.
Taiwanese firm TiSpace last month conducted what could be the first foreign launch in Hokkaido, but the suborbital flight failed within a minute.
Japan’s government is targeting 30 launches of Japanese rockets a year by the early 2030s and subsidises domestic enterprises such as Space One and Toyota-backed Interstellar Technologies.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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