1 Headquarters 2 Space Science Reference Centre 3 Mu Centre 4 KS Centre 5 Control Centre (Radar Centre) 6 Telemetry Centre 34 meter antenna 7 20 meter antenna 8 10 meter antenna
The Uchinoura Space Centre (USC) launches sounding rockets and scientific satellites and manages tracking and data. An observation deck for launch experiments is open to the public. The area of USC, 71 ha in total, are mostly hilly. Facilities for launching rockets, telemetry, tracking and command stations for rockets and satellites, and optical observation posts are on site, all prepared by flattening the tops of several hills and connected to each other by road. The space centre was established in Uchinoura (now Kimotsuki), Kagoshima prefecture, in February 1962 as part of the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, when the original facility in Iwaki (now Yuri-Honjo), Akita prefecture, was closed down. In 1964, the space centre became part of the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, University of Tokyo; in 1981 it became an independent research facility, the Kagoshima Space Centre (KSC), attached to the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). Its name was changed to the Uchinoura Space Centre (USC) when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was formed.
31°13'55.67"N 131° 3'54.21"E
More than 360 rockets and 23 satellites and probes have been launched from the Kagoshima Space Centre since Japan’s first satellite, "Osumi," was launched in 1970. USC’s main launches are for scientific purposes, such as astronomical survey satellites and planetary probes. Also, sounding rockets, such as the S-310 and the S-510, have been launched to conduct research on the middle atmosphere and on space plasma. Moreover, 20-meter and 30-meter antennas receive telemetry from satellites to track and control them while in the earth’s orbit. The 34-meter antenna can backup the 64-meter deep-space antenna at the Usuda Deep Space Centre.
