Travel to Uchinoura Space Center (USC)

ISAS satellites are launched from Uchinoura Space Center (USC) (formerly known as Kagoshima Space Center, or KSC). USC is located near the southern tip of the southern island of Kyushu. Although it is possible to get there via rail or by road, most people would find it convenient to take a domestic flight into Kagoshima.

Here are some notes that may help you plan your trip to USC, for those of you flying in from overseas.

See also Rich's tips for travellers.

Choice of Airports

The majority of international flights (talking about those from mainland US or from Europe) to Japan fly into Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT). Quite a few fly into Osaka Kansai Airport (KIX). A new airport opened in Nagoya (NGO) earlier in 2005.

The two major Japanese airliens are All-Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines. If you have a choice of these you might want to read this Japan Times article about JAL dated 2005 April 15th. In addition, ANA is a partner of the Star Alliance, which includes Lufthansa and United Airlines - the latter has the US government contract for Washington to Osaka during FY2005.

Option 1: Osaka

Currently there are two commercial airports in the Osaka area. Kansai (KIX) is the international airport, but also with some domestic flights. The older Osaka Airport at Itami (ITM) probably still have more domestic flight than KIX. There are direct buses between the two airports that costs 1,700 yen (one way) and takes about 70-75 min.

United has two daily flights to KIX from the mainland US - one from SFO, the other from Chicago O'Hare. The latter is particularly convenient for travellers from the East Coast (UA 877 leaves ORD at noon, arriving into KIX 3:35 pm the following day; UA 878 leaves KIX at 5:55 pm, and arrives into ORD at 4:10 pm the same day). There are 2 flights per day between KIX and Kagoshima (KOJ), and 11 daily flights between ITM and KOJ. See timetable.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for travellers from the US to continue to Kagoshima the day of arrival into Japan. Many of you, I'm told, have opted to stay at ANA Gate Tower Hotel Osaka (Rinku Orai Kita 1, Izumisano-Shi, Osaka 598-8511 Japan; phone: 0724-6011; on-line reservation or call 1-800-207-6900 from US and Canada). KIX is on an artifitial island, and this hotel is on the mainland but just accross the bridge. They provide a free shuttle from the airport (bus stop information and timetable can be access from their homepage).

There is also another hotel right on the airport islannd (Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport, 1 Senshu-kuko kita, Izumisano, Osaka 549-0001, Japan; Phone: 81-724-55-1111; Fax: 81-724-55-1155).

Option 2: Nagoya

The advantage of this option is that the new Nagoya airport has convenient connections to Kagoshima, since it is the airport for the city of Nagoya. The disadvantage is that there aren't many international flights. However, United has a daily flight between San Francisco (SFO) and Nagoya (NGO): UA 831 departs 1 pm from SFO, arriving into NGO at 4:20 pm the following day; UA 830 departs 3:35pm from NGO, and arrives into SFO at 9:25 am the same day. There are 7 daily flights between NGO and KOJ (See timetable.)

Option 3: Tokyo

Most international flights will arrive into New Tokyo International Airport at Narita (NRT). There are no direct flights between NRT and Kagoshima (domestic flights in general are few and far between at NRT). There are frequent direct buses to Tokyo Haneda airport (HND), however, costing 3,000 yen (one way) and taking about 75 min. From HND, there are 13 daily flights to KOJ (see timetable).

Kagoshima Airport to Kanoya and Uchinoura

ISAS has a small map with directions.

From the Kagoshima airport, you can take an airport bus to Kanoya. Kanoya Bus Center appears to be the 14th stop from the airport, costing 1800 yen and taking 100 minutes. The next stop (still 1800 yen) is the Kanoya City Hall, which is within easy walking distance of Hotel Shirasagi. See timetable taken from the Kagoshima Airport site in 2005 April. Also here is an annotated timetable with a schematic map of bus stops at the airport.

Hotels in Uchinoura and Kanoya

Cosmopia Uchinoura is the usual hotel for people who work at Uchinoura for satellite operations and the like. It is located about 10 min. drive from USC itself. However, space is limited and only the essential personnel will stay there for the launch.

Other foreign visitors (and some who participate in the launch operations but are deemed less essential) will stay in the city of Kanoya (pop. about 80000), about 1 hr drive form Uchinoura. The hotel in question is:

Hotel Shirasagi
5-11 Shirasaki-cho,
Kanoya-City,
Kagoshima 893-0037 Japan
Tel: 0994-43-5848

Alternatively, you can walk to Hotel Shirasagi (in ~5 minutes) from the next stop of the airport bus (add 9 min to the arrival time to Kanoya Bus Center), which is "Shiyakusho-Mae," ("in front of the City Hall"). On the detailed map above, it's probably where the grey circle is near the lower bottom corner. If you change the map scale to 1/8000, you'll see a grey building with a double circle colored in orange - that's the City Hall building. The bus probably comes down on the main street from the north; you backtrack a little bit, turn right before Kanoya Daikoku Grand Hotel, cross the bridge, pass by the post office, and the hotel should be on your right.

See also this travelogue who participated in a sounding rocket experiment from Uchinoura and stayed at Hotel Shirasagi in July 2002.

This page is maintained by Koji Mukai (mukai@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov).
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