The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which will formally start operations on October 1, will develop a new rocket that costs about half the 8.5 billion yen (73 million dollars) needed to launch the present H-2A rocket, said Shuichiro Yamanouchi, who will become head of JAXA.

"We want to pursue space technologies that will lead the world and that will come at lower cost," Yamanouchi, currently president of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) said at a press conference.

NASDA is due to merge with two other institutions -- the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan -- to create JAXA as part of the government's rationalisation efforts.

JAXA will develop a prototype model of the new rocket in 10 years by working with private firms as Japan continues its efforts to compete in the international satellite launch business, Yamanouchi said.

He said JAXA would aim to boost the success rate of the new rocket to make it better than that of the American space shuttle.

JAXA will cut its staff by more than 100, from some 1,800 people working for the existing three space entities, Yamanouchi added.

He said Japan was not considering a manned space mission, partly due to the nation's continued economic slump which meant funding for space programmes was tight.

Yamanouchi said China's progress towards launching its first manned space flight was aimed at showing off its military strength.

"It is completely different from what Japan is doing," he said, adding that Japan's space programmes were more technologically sophisticated than Chinese ones.

China is making final preparations for its first manned space flight and the launch of the Shenzou V craft could come anytime in the next three months, a senior Chinese space official said Tuesday.

SPACE.WIRE