TOKYO — Japan's NEC Corporation has launched a project to develop an Orbital Transfer Vehicle designed to transport satellites to their intended orbits after separation from launch rockets. The company has been selected to receive a grant for the project from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency under the heading Technologies for Realizing Flexible Mobility in Space: (A) Development of Inter-Orbital Transportation Vehicles.

A satellite without an orbital transfer vehicle must use its own engines and fuel to reach its destination orbit. An orbital transfer vehicle can place small satellites without powerful engines into distant orbits and can transport multiple small satellites simultaneously.

According to a press release, NEC plans to conduct market feasibility studies, conceptual design, and demonstrations for orbital transfer vehicles by March 2027, and to develop a prototype orbital transfer vehicle satellite for launch by 2032. NEC expects that orbital transfer vehicles will accelerate space development, promote space economies such as utilization of geostationary and cislunar orbits, and encourage new operators by lowering barriers to space utilization, according to the press release.

NEC has previously developed the geostationary communications satellite Kizuna, the lunar orbiter Kaguya, and the deep-space probes Hayabusa and Hayabusa2. The Hayabusa mission was launched in 2003 and returned to Earth in 2010 with the first samples collected from asteroid Itokawa during a touch-and-go operation. Hayabusa2, launched in 2014, landed twice on asteroid Ryuga, deployed three rovers, and blasted a hole in the rock to collect subsurface samples. The probe returned its asteroid samples to Earth in a capsule that landed in the Australian outback in 2020.

"NEC's OTV project is publicly framed as civil space logistics to accelerate satellite deployment and on-orbit services across diverse orbits," senior researcher Paul Kallender said. "However, its core capabilities – multi-orbit transfer, rendezvous and docking, and on-orbit servicing/refueling – are inherently dual-use, with clear relevance to responsive military logistics, satellite inspection, space situational awareness, and future cislunar security operations."

"The most famous OTV vehicle is the US Space Force's X-37B space plane," Kallender said. "Arguably, the second most famous (or most infamous) OTV is the X-37B's Chinese dark mirror-doppelganger Shenlong (Divine Dragon)."

NEC is one of Japan's top suppliers of information and communications systems and related software in addition to being a satellite developer. In its Mid-term Management Plan 2030, NEC identifies the new security environment as a major opportunity and states that persistent geopolitical tensions and innovations in AI are driving defense market growth and broadening the security landscape. The plan also cites the blurring of the line between peacetime and contingencies, the convergence of civilian and defense technologies and markets, and the growing importance of digital infrastructure as security opportunities.

Japan's defense build-up plan is driving a 2.5 times increase in the nation's defense-related market, according to the Mid-term Management Plan 2030. NEC plans to steadily expand its business in cross-domain operational capabilities, command and control, global equipment transfers, and expanded sales of dual-use products in line with government policy.