Japan's space agency is drawing up plans that could include manned space flights and a manned research base on the moon, a newspaper said on Monday.
Japan took a step toward restoring faith in its space program on Saturday when it put a satellite in orbit, 15 months after its previous attempt ended in humiliating failure when the rocket had to be blown up shortly after launch. That failure was particularly painful because it came shortly after China successfully put a man into space -- a move that Japan said at the time it had no plans to emulate.
The daily Mainichi Shimbun said on Monday a draft long-term plan being drawn up by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) includes developing a vehicle similar to the U.S. space shuttle by 2025.
Around the same time, it hopes to start constructing a research base on the moon, the paper said. Other plans include using satellites to send information on disasters such as tsunami directly to mobile phones, it said.
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