Japan' major satellite and satellite subsystem contractors all showed steady increases in revenue, supported by NASDA's practice of sharing work among the big three, NEC Corp, Mitsubishi Electric Corp (Melco), and Toshiba Corp, all of Tokyo.

NEC remained Japan's largest satellite, satellite subsystems and communications company, doing business worth 78,500 million yen ($682 million), with 50 percent of this coming from its communication equipment business, said Kiyoshi Murata, general manager of NEC's space systems division.

This was dominated by VSATs, transponders, earth sensors and Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) the last of represent " very big sales for us," he said.

NEC is following a twin-track approach to commercialization of its products. Regarding communications, Murata said that NEC was aggressively developing successors to four products lines including cheaper, more powerful RCVRs, SSPAs TWTAs and channel amplifiers. NEC is aiming to have these products on the market wihtin two years in line with the expected expansion of Ka-band usage. Further NEC is investing in laser transponders, he said.

NEC is currently working on some eight satellites and has developed a virtual monopoly on integrating small scientific satellite for Japan�s second space agency the Institute for Space Astronautical Science.

With commercial satellite production, NEC is levering its extensive ISAS-related work, particularly through the Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy, the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite and the Selenological and Engineering Explorer spacecraft, and the Optical Inter-Orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite for NASDA, as good candidates for building commercial satellite buses for the geo-stationary market.

"We are actively pursuing Asian customers. As a first step we would like to sell medium sized communications satellites to Asian countries and to participate in their emergent national space programs," he said.

For Melco, NASDA-related contracts accounted between 50 and 60 percent of that company's total business for the year, which amounted to 55,000 million yen ($478 million), said Takashi Kadowaki, general manager of the government space programs department.

While the lion's share of revenue came from the delivery of the Advanced Earth Observation satellite (ADEOS) for NASDA last summer, Melco can look forward to substantial income from the integration of four major NASDA satellites, Adeos-2, both Data Relay Test Satellites (DRTS) and the Engineering Test Satellite-8 (ETS-8) due for launch in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively.

Kadowaki said that NASDA procurements would continue to remain the mainstay of Melco's business beyond 2000. Melco has also built up its subsystems components business, which includes supplying embedded heat pipe structural panels, SSPAs and other communications subsystems for the major U.S. and European commercial satellite manufacturers and hopes to increase this from a current $60 million to $100 million by 2000.

Simultaneously, Melco is aggressively tooling up for the commercial satellite business based on the DRTS, ETS-8 and other satellites and is planing to put upwards of $100 million into building a new facility at its Kamakura works outside Tokyo.

Melco also intends to put in a strong bid for the Mission Demonstration Satellite program based on it's 500 kg ETS-4 bus launched back in 1987.

Toshiba, running third with revenues of 23,600 million yen ($205 million) was looking forward to diversifying its business into development of space robotics and infrastructure projects, with the company already supplying the robot arm and manipulator to be mounted on the Japanese Experimental Module for the International Space Station.

Toshiba is systems integrator for NASDA's Communications and Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite (COMETS) and subsystems integrator for ETS-7, due for launch by a H-2 rocket from Tanegashima, southern Japan on August 18 and November 1 respectively. Toshiba is also supplying the antenna for the ETS-8, and the attitude control system, aperture radar and solar panels for ALOS, along with the precipitation radar for NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, which will be dual launched with ETS-7 on August 18. In addition, the company is providing customer support for Space Systems Loral's Multi-Functional Transport Satellite that will replace Japan�s current meteorological satellite GMS-5, and serve as a test bed for the Ministry of Transport to develop communications services for the transport industry.

Toshiba is also gearing up for commercial satellite development based on ETS-6 and COMETS - both two-ton class satellites. While not stating when Toshiba would be ready, Tadayoshi Akaeda, general manager of the space programs division said, that expanding Toshiba's satellite building facilities "wasn't a problem.

"If the market is there, we won't hesitate," he added.

Toshiba regards space development as a key area in its ambitions to become a full service manufacturer of multimedia product and service systems. "We have computer and communications equipment, we have the power of the Internet, we have the capabilities to make a complete system business, be it government or commercial customers, said Akaeda.

Both of Japan's two major rocket makers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Nissan Motor Co. saw dips in their revenues from previous years.

MHI's revenues dropped slightly from the previous year from 29,000 million yen to 27,000 million yen ($252 million to 234 million) in its main business of supplying the core stages of the H-2 and H-2A rockets, the main body of JEM and building a new launch pad at Tanegashima for the H-2A. While declining to provide a breakdown of income sources, MHI spokesman Yukiharu Terawawa said that while H-2A development remained the main priority until 2000, MHI was also looking for a stream of business opportunities following the development of Japan's unmanned shuttle project, the Hope-X, which is scheduled to fly in 2001.

Nissan's revenue dropped by half, from 16,000 million yen to 8,800 million yen ($139 million to $76 million) mainly due to the non-delivery of the company's all solid M-5 small satellite launcher to the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ISAS was due to have launched the 540 kg moon probe Lunar-A this summer, but the project has been delayed some 18 months due to a problem with the probe's three seismic penetrators.

Nissan is also responsible for developing the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB-A) for the H-2A and is hoping to incorporate its new SRBs into the first stage of the proposed upgraded one-ton class J-1 rocket, said Yoshifumi Abe, manager of Nissan's Aerospace administration department.

Nissan is currently looking at developing two versions of the new launcher, which included the development of a new liquid second stage. Nissan hopes to market its version of the J-1, if it can reduce launch costs from the current $35 million to $10 million. "The point is the price," he said . As well as keeping its core business as Japan's main solid propellant rocket manufacturer, Nissan intended to develop re-entry capsules rovers for future Lunar and Mars missions and microgravity experiment equipment, he said.

The new J-1 is largely a Nissan initiative with little support from Rocket Systems Corp (RSC), which currently has the mandate to market commercial rockets based on Japanese technology. However, if Nissan can develop a low-cost small launcher, RSC can be expected to add a small launcher to its product range, currently centered on the new H2-A rocket under development by NASDA and its subcontractors.

For its part, RSC is looking bullish with at least 20 H2 rockets on option with Hughes and Loral over the next decade, and development of the H2-A on track - despite a few glitches with the main engine.

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Nov 02, 2006