IGS: What To Know About Japan’s Spy Satellite Program

On September 26, 2024, Japan, for the second-to-last time, used a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H-2A expendable rocket to put an information-gathering satellite into orbit. The “IGS Radar 8” satellite is a secret Japanese radar reconnaissance satellite that the Cabinet Satellite Information Center will use to monitor Japan’s national defense and civil natural disasters.