Japan’s low-cost space programme pushes the limits

Tokyo (AFP) Dec 19, 2010 Despite its shoestring budget, Japan’s space programme has boldly reached for the stars, pioneering solar-powered galactic travel, exploring a distant asteroid and planning a robot base on the Moon. The past year has seen Japan’s space agency JAXA chalk up several world firsts, including the safe return of a deep-space probe that picked up asteroid dust from a potato-shaped space rock on an

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