Okinawa’s space ambitions still strong, a year after test flight crash

It has been more than a year since the unmanned experimental aircraft PDAS-X06, part of a space travel project, crashed into the sea near Shimojishima Airport in Miyakojima City, Okinawa Prefecture.

PD Aerospace, the Nagoya-based developer of the aircraft, aims to realize space travel with manned spacecraft from the airport under the Shimojishima Spaceport Project, signed by the company and Okinawa Prefecture in September 2020.

Under the project, the company’s spacecraft, designed to fly to an altitude of 100 kilometers, will allow passengers to experience a state of weightlessness for about five minutes. The company had originally planned to launch space flights in 2025, sending 100 passengers into space that year and gradually increasing the capacity to 1,000 by 2030.