Kagoshima · TanegashimaNo.1178★★Open in map →
Tanegashima Space Center
Japan's largest rocket launch site faces a coral-reef coast at the southern end of Tanegashima. The museum inside the gate is free, and a full-scale Kibo module, a liftoff theatre and a rocket standing outdoors are all on the public side of the fence.
- FromTanegashima Airport (flights from Kagoshima)
- ~50 minRental car from the island airport
- Tanegashima Space Center
The sweet spot
This is a well-known place rather than a hidden one, but it is known mostly on launch days, and it is a long way south of anywhere. Tanegashima is reached only by plane or boat, and the centre is at the far end of the island. On an ordinary weekday morning the museum is quiet — not because of the hour, but because of the distance.
Where it is
1 more note in Kagoshima · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The Space Science and Technology Museumfree to enter, with rockets, satellites and Earth observation laid out across one floor
- The Kibo module mock-upa walk-in, life-size model of Japan's laboratory on the International Space Station
- The Liftoff Theatrewall and floor screens with sound and smoke that put you under a launch
- The rocket beside the entrancea full-size launch vehicle standing upright between the lawn and the access road
- The Osaki launch complexthe large-rocket pads on the far side of the bay, and the destination of the bus tour
How to actually get there
- Fly from Kagoshima Airport to Tanegashima Airport and pick up a rental car.
- Drive south: Route 76, then Route 58 at the Noma junction, then Prefectural Route 586 at the Uenaka junction (about 50 min by JAXA's figure).
- Park free beside the Space Science and Technology Museum and go in; entry is free.
- If you booked it, join the guided bus tour out to the command block and the large launch pad.
- Fly from Kagoshima, pick up a car at the island airport
- Kagoshima Airport has flights to Tanegashima Airport, and the rental desks are at the terminal. JAXA's own directions run Route 76, left onto Route 58 at the Noma junction in Nakatane, then left onto Prefectural Route 586 at the Uenaka junction in Minamitane, and put the drive at about 50 minutes. Parking at the centre is free.
- Back to the airport
- The same roads in reverse, and about the same time. There are only a handful of flights off the island each day, so the return is set by the flight rather than by the museum. Leave the site with enough margin to drop the car. If a launch closes the centre early, the drive north is unchanged.
About the place
The site covers about 9.7 million square metres of headland, forest and shoreline at the southern tip of Tanegashima, and JAXA calls it the country's largest rocket launch site. It is not one compound behind one fence. Assembly buildings, test stands, a command block and the pads are scattered across ground held between two capes, with a prefectural road running in among them. Visitors are sent to the seaward western corner, where the car park, the lawn and an upright rocket sit beside the entrance. Most of the working ground is out of reach, but the part that is open has nothing in front of it, and it faces the same water the rockets fly out over.
How to enjoy it
The doors open at 9:30 and entry is free, so the day is better built around the guided bus tour instead. It runs three times a day, takes about an hour and a quarter, costs nothing and has to be reserved in advance. Book the tour before you book the flight, not after.
Background & history
The centre opened in 1969, when Japan's national space development agency took the ground over. The island had been chosen for a plain reason: a rocket could be sent south-east over open water, clear of land and of shipping lanes. Public access arrived about a decade later. In August 1979 an exhibition hall opened inside the fence, the first full-scale space development museum in the country, and it has been the part of the site anyone can walk into without a booking ever since.
Before you go
- Cash
- The museum is free to enter and the bus tour is free to join. There is a museum shop inside. Realistically the cost of the day is the rental car and the fuel.
- Good to know
- The closed day is Monday, moving to Tuesday when the Monday is a public holiday, and August runs without one. Launch operations close the site as well, sometimes at short notice, so read the centre's notices before you set off.
- Another way
- By sea: a jetfoil from Kagoshima's south pier reaches Nishinoomote Port in about an hour and a half, and the ferry takes about three and a half hours. From Nishinoomote the drive south is about 70 minutes on JAXA's own figure.
- After you get off
- There is no walking route from the airport — the centre is at the other end of the island, and the drive is the journey. At the site the free car park is beside the museum, and the entrance is a short walk across the lawn.