History
The GX program began as an effort to upgrade Japan's J-I rocket, which launched only once. Thus, GX was originally known as J-II, albeit briefly. For a time, the program was termed J1-Upgrade, before finally settling on the current name in January 2003.
JAXA reported that a full-scale second-stage engine had been successfully test-fired in October 2007. JAXA is developing this engine, the responsibility for which would eventually be turned over to the Galaxy Express venture.
In late December 2007, The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that the GX program was being subjected to a thorough review, mainly because of unexpectedly high additional costs. It also erroneously claimed that ULA partner Lockheed Martin had discontinued production of the first stage engine, thereby requiring a redesign, likely costly, to move to another engine. The paper said that the 15 billion yen that JAXA requested for the GX project was eventually slashed to 5.6 billion yen in the Fiscal 2008 budget.
It was originally designed to use an Atlas III first stage instead of the CCB, and to be launched from Tanegashima in Japan, however this was abandoned in 2009 in favour of the current configuration.
In May 2008, it was reported that the Space Development Committee, who are overseeing the project, were considering its cancellation. In November 2009, the Japanese Government Administration Reform Committee recommended that funding for the second-stage engine be halted.
In December 2009, Japanese government decided to cancel the GX project. Development of the LNG propulsion system will continue for other projects.
In January 2010, IHI determined to disband Galaxy Express. The dissolution resulted in a one-off loss of 11.3 billion yen.
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