Fuji

Mission Profile

Fuji was a proposed Japanese crewed spacecraft concept studied in the early 2000s by JAXA as Japan's potential independent crewed space access vehicle, designed to carry a small crew of two to three astronauts to the International Space Station. The capsule concept drew on JAXA's experience with the H-IIA rocket and HTV cargo vehicle program, proposing a relatively modest crewed vehicle as a stepping stone toward full Japanese crewed spaceflight capability. Fuji remained a concept study and was not funded for development, with Japan instead continuing to rely on Soyuz and later commercial US vehicles for crew transportation to the ISS while focusing its independent efforts on robotic science and cargo missions.