The BARSC Committee recently hosted a visit from a Japanese delegation of officials led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and which also included representatives from Japan Space Systems, Japan EO-Satellite Service Ltd. and the PASCO Corporation.

During the friendly meeting, the BARSC members were given a fascinating insight into Japanese space activity and provided with an update regarding the latest developments in earth observation satellites.

There was a specific focus on the ASNARO EO missions. ASNARO-1 (a very high resolution optical mission) was launched in 2014 and ASNARO-2 (a very high resolution, less than 1m, X-band SAR mission) is due to be launched in 2017.

In reply, Dr Lavender (Chair of BARSC) presented the activities of BARSC and each attending BARSC member company gave an overview of their skills and commercial offerings; the BARSC members present included CGG NPA, CGI, Earthi, GeoSeren, Pixalytics and Telespazio Vega UK.

Thanks was extened to Telespazio Vega UK for providing the use of their offices in London as a location for the visit.