May 28, 2026 (JST)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
AstroX, Inc.

AstroX, Inc. (hereinafter “AstroX”; head office: Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture; Founder and CEO: ODA Shobu) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (hereinafter “JAXA”; President: YAMAKAWA Hiroshi) began business concept co-creation activities in 2024 under the JAXA Space Innovation through Partnership and Co-creation (J-SPARC)^*1 and have been advancing ground testing for the research and development of a suspension-type attitude control device to be used as a platform for balloon applications^*2. J-SPARC is a program aimed at creating new space-related businesses based on innovative ideas.
As favorable results have been obtained through the activities conducted to date, the two parties will begin joint business demonstration activities and carry out flight demonstration tests in the stratosphere using JAXA’s balloon system.
The technology demonstrated through the tests will not only help improve JAXA’s balloon system but also be reflected in AstroX’s design of a packaged solution to enable the use of the technology for a wide variety of applications, including launches using the Rockoon system^*3, stratospheric platforms, and construction cranes, thereby accelerating AstroX’s study of commercializing the technology.

【Background to These Activities】

JAXA has been using stratospheric balloon systems in many experiments as an important means of conducting advanced academic research, including astronomical observations. Meanwhile, high-precision attitude control devices for payloads mounted on balloons, such as experimental equipment, have often been individually designed and manufactured for each experiment, leaving versatility and reusability—needed to make high-precision attitude control available for any experiment—as key issues.
AstroX, meanwhile, has identified the stabilization of systems suspended in the air as a crucial technological factor for both the Rockoon system-based space transportation business and the stratospheric business. However, with limited expertise in the stratospheric environment and balloon dynamics, system-level verification in actual flight has yet to be conducted.
Against this backdrop, the two parties combined JAXA’s technological foundation built through balloon experiments with AstroX’s business-oriented perspective and, in August 2024, began business concept co-creation activities under J-SPARC, aiming not only to solve issues by improving the attitude control device but also to develop it into a packaged solution for commercialization.
(AstroX and JAXA have started the co-creation activities for the research and development of a suspension-type attitude control device to be used as a platform for balloon applications (Japanese Only))

【Outcomes of Business Concept Co-Creation Activities】

AstroX has, as part of a study aimed at developing the attitude control device into a packaged solution, conducted performance evaluations in a simulated stratospheric environment using a vacuum thermostatic chamber and in an environment with wind disturbances^*a. It has also conducted a launch test of a small rocket suspended by a balloon^*b as an initial integrated test assuming the use of the Rockoon system. All of these have yielded favorable outcomes.
Meanwhile, JAXA has conducted ground-based simulated environmental tests and operational tests of an attitude control device (Figure 2) with the aim of conducting a flight demonstration in the stratosphere, and achieved favorable outcomes.
The business concept co-creation activities will continue, with JAXA conducting ground-based technology demonstrations that reflect the results of the actual flight testing and AstroX developing prototypes and conducting evaluations to adapt the device for use as a packaged solution.

【Target Outcomes】

The packaged solution for the attitude control device is designed to contribute to the following domains:

<JAXA>

Advanced academic research domain: an attitude control device that can be used for next-generation astronomical observations and other research

<AstroX>

Space transportation business domain: Rockoon system-based rocket launches, in which a rocket is suspended by a balloon and launched from the stratosphere to place a satellite into orbit

Stratospheric business domain: feasibility studies for businesses related to HAPS^*4

Non-aerospace domain: spin-offs into applications requiring the stabilization and control of suspended loads, such as construction cranes

【Comment】

FUKE Hideyuki
Head of Scientific Ballooning Research and Operation Group, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAXA

In light of the fact that steady progress has been made through the co-creation activities with AstroX, which started in 2024, aimed at making attitude control devices more versatile and advanced, and that the developed technology is now at the stage of being sequentially tested at the system level, we have decided to proceed to the joint business demonstration phase. We will continue working to meet a wide range of industrial, academic, and governmental needs, including those in non-space fields.

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