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Japan launches moon lander and X-ray observatory (spacenews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by zhunk@beehaw.org to c/space@beehaw.org

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[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

At least to some extend it is a subsidy program to prop up or maintain a national launch fleet against stiff commercial competition (SpaceX) and to renew the local expertise to keep the ageing fleet of ICBMs going. The moon was and is a convenient excuse to waste tax money on this. Japan is one of the cases of ramping up a thinly veiled threat of nuke delivery capacity without officially saying so.

[–] zhunk@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I dunno about this take in this case. Most of the US CLPS landers are launching on Falcons. Literally all but 1 so far. PPE/HALO will launch on a Falcon Heavy. Gateway Logistics will launch on Falcons. The HLS options will launch on Starship and New Glenn. SLS will never fly a commercial flight, and Northrop is already getting big ICBM contracts.