Japan’s Prototype Space Shuttle Makes First Test Flight

An unmanned, jet powered model of Japan’s proposed Hope-X space shuttle completed a test flight on Christmas Island in the Republic of Kiribati yesterday.

The shuttle, a 1/4 scale model of Hope-X, was developed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL).

During the flight the test vehicle reached a maximum speed of 130 MPH and an altitude of nearly 2,000 feet. The vehicle then landed automatically on a runway. This island also serves as the location of NASDA’s Christmas Downrange Tracking Station.

This flight was part of Phase 1 in the vehicle’s test program. Four additional flights will be conducted in the coming week with a maximum planned speed of Mach 0.5.

Phase II will include launches of a powered test vehicle from a balloon developed in cooperation with Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC).