The Tsukuba Space Center (TKSC) also known by its radio

callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assi ...

Tsukuba, is the operations facility and headquarters for the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national Aeronautics, air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satell ...

(JAXA) located in Tsukuba Science City in

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

. The facility opened in 1972 and serves as the primary location for Japan's space operations and research programs. Japanese astronauts involved in the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

are trained in part here in addition to the training they receive at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The complex has several facilities that are used to assemble JAXA's satellites, and the Japanese Experiment Module for the

. The TKSC offers tours of the facility as well as an exhibit hall which features models of the

H-II Transfer Vehicle The H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), also called , is an Expendable launch system, expendable Japanese Cargo spacecraft, automated cargo spacecraft designed for International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions, particularly the Kibo (ISS module ...

and a full-sized mock-up of the '' Kibō'' module on the International Space Station.

References

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*
English information page
{{Coord, 36, 3, 56.8, N, 140, 7, 47.3, E, source:jawiki_region:JP, display=title 1972 establishments in Japan Tsukuba, Ibaraki JAXA facilities

See also

References

External links