Japan In Space

Brian Harvey has been a writer and broadcaster on spaceflight since the early 1970s. His articles have appeared in Spaceflight, Space Chronicle, Quest, Orbit, Astronomy & Space, Go Taikonauts! and ROOM.  He has contributed to radio programs on BBC (Radio 4, Radio 5, World Service, Northern Ireland), Voice of American, Radio Free Europe, Future tense (Australia) and to television and film programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Discovery Channel, Danish TV and China CCTV (Dialogue - ideas matter). His first book was a history of the Soviet space program (Ellis Horwood, 1988), with three subsequent editions; followed by histories of Soviet lunar exploration, Soviet planetary exploration, Russian space science, the American Explorer program as well as histories of the European, Japanese and Indian space programs (all published by Praxis, later Praxis/Springer).  He has written four histories of China’s space program, the most recent also published in Chinese.  He contributed chapters to Space Sleuths (Praxis, 2012) and a book on Yuri Galperin, published by the Academy of Sciences in Moscow (2012).

“Harvey’s book is highly illustrated: 189 in color and 20 in black and white. From start to finish, this is a really solid space book. It’s perfect for readers, especially those in the West, who want to know what Japan has done and will do in space.” (Casey Suire, National Space Society, nss.org, March 24, 2024)

• Chapter 1 - Origins - the legacy of Hideo Itokawa.- Chapter 2. Space science.- Chapter 3. Technology, society and economy.- Chapter 4. Deep space.- Chapter 5. Human spaceflight.- Chapter 6. Change of direction.- Chapter 7. Infrastructure and organization.- Chapter 8. Future.- Chapter 9. Conclusion: Japan in comparative Asian and global perspective.