_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/         
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--            
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _            
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|           
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                  
                                                          /                   
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

THE NEW SPACE AGENCY JAXA

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was born on October 1, 2003, merging the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL), and National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). October 1st was also the date on which NASA was formed in 1958, and so NASA has just celebrated its 45th birthday.

JAXA is an independent agency, and Shuichiro Yamanouchi is the first president of JAXA. JAXA consists of four sections, with most of the former ISAS making up one of the four. The "new" ISAS will deal with space research and education, and its English name is "Institute of Space and Astronautical Science" (i.e. as previously but without the leading "the"!). So, Prof. Hisashi Hirabayashi is still in ISAS, and ISAS is still in hISAShi! The other sections are the Office of Space Flight and Operations, Office of Space Application and Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics.

S. Ananthakrishnan, Director of the GMRT, has informed us that in Hindi "Yakusha" means "flying angel", however in Japanese, "Jakusha" means "weak men", and "Yakuza" are the Japanese mafia, so care must be taken when pronouncing the new institution!

The three former agencies operated largely independently: ISAS concentrating on space and planetary research, NAL being concerned with next generation aviation and space research and development, and NASDA dealing with the development of large-size rockets (such as the H-IIA), satellites for communication and Earth observation etc, and the space station. NASDA, established in 1969, was the largest of the three, with a staff of almost 1100 people and an annual budget of 200 billion yen. NAL had a staff of 410, and ISAS 320, and both had annual budgets of around 20 billion yen.

The merger of the three agencies reminds us of the combination of three up and down quarks to form a proton or neutron. Maybe JAXA is a very stable first generation particle with a positive charge. But someday it may change to an exotic second generation particle from a combination of charm and strange quarks! In the new logo (https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/index.shtml), it is said that the "A" of "Aerospace" is a star to symbolize "hope", and to represent a guidepost pointing to the future, but it also bears a close resemblance to particle trajectories following the interactions of fundamental particles!

With the creation of JAXA all ISAS e-mail addresses have changed. However, in many cases, the "isas.ac.jp" portion of the address will simply change to "isas.jaxa.jp". The VSOP web pages will undergo a similar change. All JAXA staff will have official JAXA e-mail addresses too. The current "isas.ac.jp" addresses will continue to work for the next six months or so.

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi