Japan's lab, rocket latest push in Asia's space race

TSUKUBA, Japan -- Caged by yellow catwalks in a hangar outside Tokyo, Japan's most hyped and technically advanced space project looks more like a bus-sized dog food can than a space station module.

But when launched into orbit three years from now, the research capsule will be the only part of the international space station designed, built and run by an Asian country.

Japan's high-tech wizardry boosted it into that elite club of space travelers. Bristling with pride, Japan bills the vessel, called Kibo -- or Hope -- as Asia's first manned spacecraft.

Yet as the 16-year, $4 billion venture entered the final phase of testing in November, Japan's space program was faltering. And as an Asia-wide space race is just beginning to heat up, it's all Japan can do to keep a tenuous lead.

"This project is very important," says Hideo Nagasu, former director of Japan's National Aerospace Laboratory. "We've spent so much time and money on this, we have to be successful."

Mirrors Cold War race

The Asian space race may lack the high-profile propaganda of the Cold War sprint for the moon. But it mirrors that showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union in one important way: It is driven more by strategic goals than scientific ones.

The list of contenders is long.

China wants to be the next country launching its own astronauts into space; India is on the verge of mastering the cryogenic technology needed to launch satellites or intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Even impoverished North Korea claims to have an unmanned satellite circling the globe in praise of its Great Leader.

And nearby Australia is fueling regional rivalries by trying to break into commercial launching with a new type of scram jet engine.

"There are several space races going on," said space analyst Joan Johnson-Freese, of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. "There's the prestige race and the technological race. The official reason for Japan's space station is microgravity research. The real reason is that this is their foot in the door to a manned space program."

Calling Kibo a manned spacecraft is a bit of a stretch.

While the vessel has room for four astronauts to conduct experiments, it will tentatively be launched into space by the U.S. space shuttle in three separate shots beginning in 2004.

Japan doesn't have a rocket big enough to budge the 16-ton package and the country isn't seriously entertaining plans to eventually launch its own astronauts.

China, on the other hand, has placed great prestige on and poured an undisclosed amount of resources into its secretive 31-year-old space program. Some estimates say China could be ready to put astronauts aloft in two years.