The is one of Japan's

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 space development facilities. It is located on Tanegashima

Tanegashima

is an island lying to the south of Kyushu, in southern Japan, and is part of Kagoshima Prefecture. The island is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands....

, an island located 115 km south of Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

. It was established in 1969 when the National Space Development Agency of Japan

National Space Development Agency of Japan

of Japan, or NASDA, was a Japanese national space agency established on October 1, 1969 under the National Space Development Agency Law only for peaceful purposes...

 (NASDA) was formed. It is now run by JAXA.

The activities that take place at TNSC include assembly, testing, launching and tracking of satellites, as well as rocket engine firing tests. It is Japan's largest space development center.

Facilities

There are several facilities at the TNSC. There are two orbital launch complexes; Yoshinobu

Yoshinobu Launch Complex

The Yoshinobu Launch Complex, also known as Launch Area Y, Area Y or LA-Y, is a launch complex at the Tanegashima Space Centre, used by the H-II and H-IIA carrier rockets. The complex is also used by the H-IIB, which was first launched on 10 September 2009...

 and Osaki. Yoshinobu has two launch pads. One of the firing test facilities is the Yoshinobu Firing Test Stand, where testing of the H-IIA

H-IIA

H-IIA is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency . The liquid-fueled H-IIA rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit, to launch a lunar orbiting spacecraft, and to launch an interplanetary...

 first stage engine LE-7A takes place. There are also buildings for assembly of spacecraft, and for radar and optical tracking of launched spacecraft.

In fiction

In Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest, also known as AoC, is the official expansion pack for the real-time strategy game Empire Earth. Art of Conquest was developed by Mad Doc Software, and was released on 17 September 2002 in the United States. The game was released in Europe later in the year, and...

, in the Asian Campaign, the Tanegashima Space Center is an important location, pivotal in the story to the United Federation of Asian Republics reaching Mars before the Americans or Europeans. The spaceport was completely destroyed in a nuclear bombing raid by Novaya Russia, but was rebuilt by the UFAR at the request of their ally, Japan.

Mossdeep Space Center in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

are the third installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing games, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. The games were first released in Japan in late 2002 and later released to the rest of the world in 2003 . Pokémon Emerald, a special edition version,...

 is based on this location.

External links

• Introduction
• http://www.astronautix.com/sites/tanshima.htm
• SLR Global Performance Report Card
• 8866 Tanegashima
  8866 Tanegashima
  8866 Tanegashima is a main-belt asteroid discovered on January 26, 1992 by M. Mukai and M. Takeishi at Kagoshima.- External links :*...
  
  - asteroid