Japan signed an agreement with NASA last year to include two Japanese astronauts and a Toyota-made rover in future missions to the lunar surface
Japan is ready to support the United States’ lower-cost lunar missions, its space agency chief said on Friday, after the U.S. administration proposed a $6 billion cut to NASA’s budget that could upend the Artemis programme to return people to the moon.
U.S.-led Artemis, established during President Donald Trump’s first term and joined by partners including Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada, has grown into a multibillion-dollar project aiming to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.
“If the U.S. were considering a better alternative in terms of budget or economics, we must respond to it,” Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told a monthly briefing.
Trump unveiled his 2026 budget proposal for NASA earlier this month. It would almost halve the agency’s space science budget and reshape its exploration programmes to focus on Mars with “cost-effective” rockets and spaceships.
Japan signed an agreement with NASA last year to include two Japanese astronauts and a Toyota-made rover in future missions to the lunar surface
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