I am pleased to hold the monthly press conference after an interval of two months. In the aerospace sector, a variety of programs were underway around the world during the past summer period, as you know. Among them, I will give a brief report on progress made in two major missions.
First is about the Artemis program, in which Japan participates as a partner. In response to the previous two launch postponements of Artemis I, NASA is developing preventive measures based on findings from investigations into the cause. However, the rescheduled launch set to early hours on September 23 (Friday), EST, was put off again. At this point, the newly rescheduled launch calendar has been announced as follows: September 27, EST (late hours on September 28, JST), and October 2, EST (early hours on October 3, JST), an alternative date for backup. This calendar may change depending on results of tests to be conducted going forward. In Japan, those in charge of EQUULEUS and OMOTENASHI, Japanese-made CubeSats to be mounted on the rocket, are making every possible effort to prepare them adequately for the newly scheduled launch.
The Artemis mission represents a huge challenge for manned lunar exploration, the first of its kind in 50 years since the end of the Apollo missions. In order to move forward with this mission, we have confirmed our determination to ensure the fulfillment of the roles assigned to Japan and JAXA.

Next, I will give updates on the coming mission of Astronaut WAKATA Koichi. It has been decided that the launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft (Crew-5) planned to carry Astronaut WAKATA is scheduled for 01:45 a.m. on October 4 (Tuesday), JST. Crew-5 will provide him the fifth flight to space. I hope that he will carry out an array of on-orbit missions, taking advantage of his proven track record, and play a leadership role demonstrating Japan’s distinctive spirit of harmony. Recently, we held a media briefing to explain about Kibo utilization missions to be run during Astronaut WAKATA’s long duration stay as a member of the Expedition 68 crew. These missions have been selected for the program aimed to promote the utilization of the on-orbit function for the purpose of conducting scientific research, establishing human space exploration technologies, and expanding private use of space. At JAXA, a large team, working closely with Astronaut WAKATA and receiving support from many related parties, will strive to perform a range of missions to be able to achieve substantial results that will increase Japan’s presence in the space sector.

We would appreciate it if we could have your continuing support.

JAXA plans to launch the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-3 and two privately owned SAR satellites aboard the sixth Epsilon Launch Vehicle (Epsilon-6) from the Uchinoura Space Center on October 7 (Friday), 2022. This will be the first launch of an Epsilon Launch Vehicle in about 11 months since the fifth vehicle was launched in November 2021.
“The Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-3” to be launched as above is the third satellite developed for the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program, which provides opportunities for on-orbit demonstrations of Japan's outstanding technologies and ideas, not only for a satellite basis but also for parts and components.

The commercialization of the demonstration themes aboard “the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1” launched in January 2019 is already underway for several themes, based on the results of on-orbit demonstrations.
One such example is the “Innovative FPGA,” the theme explored by NEC Corporation. As a result of the on-orbit demonstration, the company confirmed the functional reliability and performance of the new FPGA (a type of semiconductor integrated circuit) developed incorporating the NanoBridge technology (“NB-FPGA”) to reduce size and power consumption as well as increasing radiation tolerance. Based on this result, the company has formed a new company to manufacture and sell NB-FPGA, and has made trial products to sell to corporate users while developing business to provide next-generation models to automobile and other private-sector businesses.

We have also received reports on a number of other themes that have achieved the commercialization, sales and adoption of products.

The Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-2, which was launched in November 2021, carried 9 satellites and 14 demonstration themes, including the first satellite developed by students at a technical college in addition to those developed by companies and universities. These themes are currently in the process of on-orbit demonstration.
We hope that these demonstration themes will serve their purpose to develop business afterwards, as those from the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-1.

We are now preparing for the launch of the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-3. On September 2, we publicly presented the RApid Innovative payload demonstration SatellitE-3 (RAISE-3) at the Uchinoura Space Center.
RAISE-3 will carry seven demonstration themes, including the first of its kind in the world.

The first stage motor of the Epsilon Launch Vehicle was delivered to the Uchinoura Space Center on May 25. Since then, works at the launch site has been progressing step by step in preparation for the launch scheduled for October 7.

We are currently in the process of connecting and inspecting all stages of the launch vehicle. All eight satellites have been loaded onto rockets.

We are determined to make this launch a success and achieve results that will lead to the expansion of space utilization.

I would like to inform you of the development status of the LE-9 engine, which is being newly developed as the first stage engine for the H3 Launch Vehicle.
A detailed explanation on this topic was given by Project Manager Okada at the press briefing on September 1. So, I would like to cut unnecessary details today.

We performed five first-half sessions of the qualification test in July and August. At this point, we are conducting a acceptance test for the two LE-9 engines to be mounted on the test vehicle1.
The acceptance test on the first LE-9 engine was carried out on September 6 and 12. The specific date of conducting the test on the second engine is to be determined.

The launch schedule for the test vehicle 1 will be determined upon completion of the planned captive firing test(CFT), with an eye on achieving a lift-off by the end of fiscal 2022.

Many of you still remember the heavy rainstorms that occurred in many locations this past summer. Recent extreme weather events and climate change phenomena are posing global challenges, and the world is responding to an increasing need to promote international partnerships and industry-academia-government collaborations in order to overcome these challenges.

Against this background, JAXA recognizes that it is one of its important roles to deploy earth observation satellites to capture various weather phenomena over the earth’s surface and provide the resulting data to help address the above challenges. Thus, we formed a partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) for the above purpose, and launched the online program Earth Observing Dashboard in June 2020 in order to publish the results of joint analysis of earth observation data. In July this year, the three agencies jointly announced that they had agreed to continue with this project up to June 2024.
This program provides scenario-based descriptions of likely changes in the global environment and their possible impact on human and social activities in various ways. The related website is designed to be user-friendly and easy to access for many people, including general visitors as well as scientists and policymakers, even with less knowledge about artificial satellites and earth observation data.

I would also like to introduce more recent activities, which are from the Consortium for Satellite Earth Observation (CONSEO).This initiative was launched on September 7, 2022, and JAXA serves as secretariat of the consortium.
CONSEO represents a collaboration between the industry, academic, and government sectors, and has three major objectives:
1. submit recommendations on Japan’s comprehensive earth observation satellite strategies to contribute to policy discussions related to the Basic Plan on Space Policy and its related Roadmap;
2. enhance Japan’s earth science research capabilities with a focus on earth observation, looking to play a leading role in encouraging international partnerships to address climate change issues; and
3. promote industry-academia-government co-creation activities in order to expand the number of participants from many more industries, with a view to building a new growth industry of the country. On the day of launching the consortium, the founding convention and a symposium were held in person and online, inviting a total of more than 700 participants.
I was given an opportunity to have the floor in the symposium, and presented my views, focusing on a future vision of earth observation activities to be developed in response to the rapid changes in the situation related to national security, socioeconomic conditions, the global environment and other factors. As an approach to realizing this vision, we suggest the importance of integrating functions for earth observation, positioning, and communication, and establish the outer space remote sensing technology as a new sensor network option. We believe this will enable new value to be created in society. And such new value creation activities should engage open partnerships of many different players.
I received encouraging comments from other panelists, which indicates their recognition of the importance of earth observation data. Some representative comments pointed out the expected significant contribution of such data by composing digital twin platforms and and enhancing global network systems driven by ever-advancing digitization and AI technologies, while others considered such data as an essential social infrastructure function to enhance prediction capabilities (based on the recognition that accurate observation is essential to accurate prediction), emphasizing the need to establish systems to treat earth observation data as public property and make it publicly available, looking to create a new business model using the data.

Aiming to contribute to addressing social issues using earth observation data, JAXA will continue with its efforts to develop new earth observation activities and achieve sizable results in cooperation with related parties inside and outside of Japan as well as stepping up measures to expand the user base of the data.

At the end of August, 2022, the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8) was held in Tunisia. Japan is a co-host of this conference.
For the purpose of supporting the development of the emerging space industry of countries in Africa and other regions, particularly through technological capacity building and personnel development, JAXA runs the KiboCUBE program, starting from 2015. This program is promoted in partnership with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), providing the above countries with opportunities to deploy CubeSates from the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” on the International Space Station (ISS). This past February, we selected two teams for the sixth round of the program, including one from Ecole Superieure Privee d'Ingenierie et de Technologie Appliquee (Private Higher School of Engineering and Applied Technology) in Tunisia.
Other Japanese institutions, principally universities and colleges, including Kyushu Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo, provide unique programs to support African countries’ efforts for artificial satellite development.

From the past five rounds of KiboCUBE, a total of six African CubeSats have been deployed from Kibo, and deployment of another three is scheduled for this and next year.

Against this background, we took the opportunity afforded by TICAD 8 taking place in Tunisia to organize workshop and other programs for representatives from Tunisia and other African countries to learn more about CubeSat development.

I will give a brief report on two major programs. One was the Africa-Japan CubeSat Cooperation Workshop, taking place on August 26, which was co-hosted by JAXA, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Center for Spatial Information Science of the University of Tokyo, and the relevant Tunisian organization.
This was the first time that JAXA had hosted a program of its kind in Africa. The workshop was attended by 120 participants, mainly from African countries and international organizations.
In the workshop, presentations were given from seven countries on capabilities acquired and issues identified through performing CubeSat missions. Also, panel discussions were held to explore effective approaches to develop sustainable space development activities in each country over a long term, establishing a shared understanding of the importance of promoting utilization of satellite data in order to solve social issues, as well as accumulating satellite technologies.
The other was the KiboCUBE Academy, which was held on August 25, and organized to provide technical seminars on CubeSats for representatives from Tunisia and other African countries.
The seminars were given both in person and online from the venue in Tunisia, discussing principally techniques and procedures related to the development of CubeSats as well as their deployment from the ISS and on-orbit operations. We had a combined total of more than 200 in-person and online attendees, who were composed of all ages, and including those from the Tunisian university selected for the sixth round of the KiboCUBE program. This made me confirm that the region has a strong interest in the development of CubeSats.

I believe that the two events will help promote the space development activities of Tunisia, the host country, and also strengthen cooperation networks of Japan and African countries for promoting space development.

Going forward, we will support the development of the emerging space industry of Africa and other regions through technological capacity building and personnel development, taking similar opportunities available.