JAXA communicates with ISS!

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) became to be able to communicate with ISS.

I heard that the countries which can communicate with ISS themselves are only the U.S., Russia, and Japan.


JAXA uses this facility to communicate with ISS.

Courtesy of JAXA

This facility is called ICS-Exposed Facility subsystem.

It is on Kibo, which is Japanese module of ISS.

If you think "where is ICS-EF?", go to here (I point it out on my page).



By the way, JAXA communicates with ISS through a satellite.

Why? Is it simple to communicate directly?

So, I went to JAXA's site and got it.


The satellite used by JAXA is Kodama launched in 2002. It relays data between other sattellites and Earth.

Courtesy of JAXA

Kodama's page is here.

Unlike the countries which have large territory, Japan has few points to communicate with satellites.

Therefore, if it directly communicates with ISS, the communication continues only in several minutes.

With a satellite relaying data, the area to communicate expands.

JAXA compensates for the lack of resource with its technology.


More information is here (JAXA's page).