Review: The Islands and the Starsby Jeff Foust
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| Japanese space efforts were spread out among many organizations and government agencies for decades. |
That incident highlights the uneven state of Japan’s space program today. It has struggled in space transportation, both with the H3 and the smaller Epsilon-S rocket that has been grounded since a 2022 failure, a problem that recently forced the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to purchase two launches from Rocket Lab for tech demo smallsats. But it excels in other areas of space science and technology, such as the Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions that returned samples from asteroids before NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
Those challenges are explored in The Islands and the Stars, a new history of Japan’s space program. Or, rather, programs, as the book’s subtitle uses the plural for good reason: Japanese space efforts were spread out among many organizations and government agencies for decades. JAXA was formed only in 2003 to centralize civil space activities after problems in launch and other projects reached a breaking point.
The book traces the history of Japanese space activities up to the creation of JAXA. There was interest in rocketry in Japan between the two world wars, as in other countries, but during World War II there were only a few rocket-related projects that did not get very far, unlike Germany. The book opens with an effort by Japan to import German expertise and equipment in advanced technologies, including rocketry, by submarine in 1944, but the sub was sunk by the US Navy before reaching Japan.
The modern Japanese space program dates to the early 1950s with a project by Hideo Itokawa at the University of Tokyo that started with rockets the size of a pencil. This effort evolved over time into what ultimately became known as the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). Under Itokawa’s leadership, it developed larger rockets, including one that place Japan’s first satellite, Ohsumi, into orbit in 1970. Itokawa was also a promoter and proselytizer of space in the country; in effect, a Japanese von Braun, although one without the controversy over his World War II work (Itokawa designed military aircraft during the war.)
By the time ISAS launched Ohsumi with its small solid-propellant rockets, though, there were disruptions to the Japanese space industry. ISAS had rejected proposals to import American technology for liquid-propellant rockets, preferring to develop propulsion systems domestically. Japanese telecommunications companies, though, wanted larger vehicles to launch communications satellites. That led to the creation of the National Space Development Agency, or NASDA, charged with importing that technology for larger vehicles as a step towards development of domestic liquid-propulsion technology.
| Wijeyeratne argues that many of the “trends and processes” leading up to the formation of JAXA in 2003 have continued afterwards, and events like the H3 failure (the second in seven flights) add weight to it. |
NASDA and ISAS went on separate paths, with ISAS eventually ending launch vehicle work to focus on space science missions while NASDA worked on the H-1 and H-2 rockets as well as other spacecraft missions. Wijeyeratne, a history professor at Purdue University, argues this reached a breaking point in the 1990s with a series of launch and satellite failures at a time when the Japanese economy, which had been growing rapidly though most of the postwar era, stagnated. The failure of an H-2 launch in 1999, carrying a Japanese weather satellite, was the last straw, resulting in reforms culminating in the formation of JAXA through the combination of ISAS, NASDA, and the National Aerospace Laboratory (although ISAS lives on as a unit within JAXA.)
Wijeyeratne argues that many of the “trends and processes” leading up to the formation of JAXA in 2003 have continued afterwards, and events like the H3 failure (the second in seven flights) add weight to it. There are, though, changes in the last two decades in Japan’s space industry that suggest opening of new paths, like the formation of startups developing new spacecraft and launch vehicles similar to those in the US, but with support from the Japanese government (see “Japanese commercial firms as drivers of Japanese space policy,” The Space Review, January 12, 2026.)
There are not many English-language histories of the Japanese space program, particularly those that approach the present day, so The Islands and the Stars is a welcome addition that provides insight into the development of programs and agencies. But at just over 200 pages, excluding references and other end matter, many readers may be left wanting more details about specific projects and people. There are also a few rough edges, like a claim that the European Space Agency, which, like Japan, was seeking to get into the commercial launch market in the 1980s, was spending 70% of its budget on launch at the time. ESA documents, like this 1985 annual report, show that ESA was only spending about 30% on launch. The H-2A also had a couple more commercial launches than the book gives it credit for, including for Inmarsat and Telesat, although the author is correct in concluding the vehicle failed to win much non-government business.
JAXA is likely to recover from this latest H3 failure, and the vehicle may be flying again within months, albeit with a hit to its reputation. It also suggests, though, that the future of Japan’s space industry may need to be very different from its past for the country to remain a leading player.
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