Japan has successfully launched a spacecraft designed to inspect and potentially remove man-made space debris from around the Earth, said a statement from Astroscale Japan on Monday.

Japan launches debris removal spacecraft to tackle space junk

Japan's space agency - the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) - said on Thursday (Jan 25) that it achieved an unprecedented "pinpoint" Moon landing within 100 metres of the target.

An 'unprecedented' pinpoint landing: Japan says its Moon landing was within 100 metres of target

Japan's space agency revealed that on Wednesday (October 12) it had to send a self-destruct instruction to its Epsilon rocket after a failed launch. The rocket was found to be unsafe to fly.

Japan instructs its space rocket to self-destruct after failed launch

Japan has successfully launched a new navigation satellite into orbit that will be replacing the country's decade-old navigation satellite. According to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the satellite, QZS-1R, was launched onboard an H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on Monday night at 10.

Replacing decade-old system, Japan launches advanced GPS satellite into orbit

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Friday to replace ageing batteries for the laboratory’s solar power system, an upgrade needed to keep the outpost running into the next decade, NASA said.

NASA astronauts begin spacewalk to upgrade station power system

Scientists in Japan said Tuesday they were left "speechless" when they saw how much asteroid dust was inside a capsule delivered by the Hayabusa-2 space probe in an unprecedented mission.

Asteroid samples from Hayabusa-2 space probe leave Japanese scientists 'speechless'

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe landed successfully Thursday on a distant asteroid for a final touchdown, hoping to collect samples that could shed light on the evolution of the solar system.

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe lands successfully on asteroid