In August 2014, Japan plans to inject in near-Earth orbit a new cheap observation satellite ASNARO, which Tokyo expects to export abroad. It was reported by representatives of the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

      The main advantage of ASNARO is its low cost – less than 10 billion yen ($ 95 million), which is about three times less than the U.S. or European satellites of a similar type. Besides this, Japanese spacecraft is equipped with a powerful optical system that allows tracking small objects the size of a car on the Earth surface from 500 kilometers orbital altitude.

      In particular, satellite can be used for collecting information in disaster areas and as a support for urban planning. ASNARO will be launched into space with the help of a Russian carrier rocket, presumably, from Yasny space launching base in Orenburg Oblast. After this, in the course of one year, Japanese experts will conduct testing of the spacecraft systems.

      The Japanese hope that on the tide of interest of some states, specifically developing countries of South-East Asia intending to launch into space their own observation satellites, ASNARO will allow their country to start exporting spacecrafts abroad. At the same time, Tokyo hopes to finally join the club of the countries that carry out commercial space launches. Currently, about 80% of launches are carried out by Russia and the EU. Japan's first step on this path was launching into orbit а South Korean "Arirang-3" satellite with Japanese "HLB-2-A" (H2A) rocket in 2012.