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Japanese
Joint-Venture Announced to Develop and Market J-2 Rocket
Ishikawajima-Harima
Heavy Industries Co. (IHI) has formed a joint-venture with
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Corp., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.,
IHI Aerospace Co. (the former Nissan Aerospace), Japan Aviation
Electronics Industry Ltd., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Kokusai
Sohko Co. to develop and market its new J-2 (or J-1U) medium-lift
launch vehicle to be available in early 2006. The venture, to be
known as Galaxy Express, is capitalized at US$820,000 (¥100
million). The development of the new launch vehicle is expected to
cost US$325-400 million (¥40-50 billion), one third of which will
be paid by the industry while the remaining part will be funded by
the Japanese government.
The J-2 will be
based on a liquid oxygen/kerosene first stage derived from Atlas
tanks provided by Lockheed Martin and powered by a single NK-33
engine supplied by Aerojet. It will feature a liquid methane/liquid
oxygen second stage powered by a new engine developed by IHI.
All
the shareholders of Galaxy Express are also shareholders of Rocket
System Corp., the company responsible for marketing the H-2A launch
vehicle.
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