Japan's spy satellites to ride home-built rocket

Japan’s Synspective has signed a contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to launch two StriX synthetic-aperture-radar satellites on an H3 rocket in 2027. The missions will be the company’s first launches on a Japanese vehicle and will support a growing commercial constellation whose imagery also contributes to services for Japan’s Ministry of Defense. Using the domestically built H3 can strengthen Japan’s end-to-end space industrial base within an increasingly independent launch ecosystem, although the satellites are privately operated Earth-observation assets rather than publicly identified government-owned reconnaissance spacecraft.