Japan is ready to support the United States’ lower-cost lunar missions, its space agency chief said on Friday, after the U.S. administration proposed a $6 billion cut to NASA’s budget that could upend the Artemis program to return people to the moon.
U.S.-led Artemis, established during President Donald Trump’s first term and joined by partners including Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada, has grown into a multibillion-dollar project aiming to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.
“If the U.S. were considering a better alternative in terms of budget or economics, we must respond to it,” Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told a monthly briefing.
