TOKYO: Firefly Aerospace is exploring an option to launch its Alpha rocket from Japan as the US rocket maker expands its satellite launch services globally, a Japanese company operating a spaceport in the country’s northern Hokkaido said today.
The plan could make Japan the second offshore launch site – and first in Asia – for Firefly, the Texas-based rival to Elon Musk’s market leader SpaceX, which had its Nasdaq debut earlier this month and is preparing for an Alpha launch in Sweden.
Space Cotan, operator of the Hokkaido Spaceport located about 820km northeast of Tokyo, said it and Firefly signed a preliminary agreement to study the feasibility of launching the small-lift rocket Alpha from there.