U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command and Japan launch first bilateral space effort

Both U.S. payloads for this mission were designed and built by MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA.
February 7, 2025
Space Systems Command

A U.S. space domain awareness payload hosted on Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite 6 (QZS-6) successfully launched on a Japanese H-3 launch vehicle from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on February 2, 2025. This is the first bilateral U.S. Japan cooperative space effort focused on national security, and the first of two launches as part of the JAXA Quasi-Zenith Satellite System Hosted Payload (QZSS-HP) program.

Photo of the SACHI launch in Japan.
Spectators watch as the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System-Hosted Payload lifts off aboard an H-3 launch vehicle in Tanegashima, Japan, Feb. 2, 2025. Image credit: Senior Airman Jacob Wood

The satellite will be operated by Space Operations Command’s Mission Delta 2, which conducts space domain awareness operations to identify, characterize, and exploit opportunities and mitigate vulnerabilities in the national security space terrain on behalf of the U.S. Space Force (USSF) and U.S. Space Command. The satellite will deliver near real time data to the Space Surveillance Network bolstering the U.S. Department of Defense understanding of the geosynchronous orbit regime above the Indo-Pacific region.

The QZSS-HP program encompasses the integration, launch, and operations of two U.S. payloads hosted on Japanese satellites. In preparation for launch, USSF and MIT Lincoln Laboratory teams have worked side-by-side with Japan's National Space Policy Secretariat and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation teams in Japan over the past two years to integrate and test the first hosted payload alongside its Japanese QZS-6 host.