JAXA Tsukuba Space Center is Japan’s largest core agency to explore space through a variety of projects such as developing and running satellites, building rockets and transportation systems, and training astronauts.
The green premises, as big as 12 Tokyo domes, host multiple research buildings. Near the front gate of the Center, an H-II Rocket built by Japan is on display. It is about 50m-long, weighs 260 tons and is 4m in diameter, which is a real aircraft used for a ground test.
The Space Dome, which is a museum built on the Center’s ground, has satellites, rocket engines and other test models on display along with detailed explanations of their functions. There is a life-size mock-up of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo. Step inside the detailed representations and imagine yourself as a real astronaut.
In a guided tour (reservation required), you can watch the introduction video of Tsukuba Space Center, monitor a variety of equipment in the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo, tour the control room that supports astronauts’ activities from Earth, and look around the facilities used to select, train, and maintain the health of astronauts. (As of November 2021, guided tours are suspended)
Highlights
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Exhibitions under different themes are held.
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Planet Cube’s museum shop has space food, such as curry and rice eaten by astronauts in space, and space-related goods available.
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The exhibition hall shows the models of Japan’s rockets in the past mainly on a 1/20 scale, and the test model of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, Konotori, which carries supplies to the International Space Station.
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