Winged Reusable Sounding rocket
WIRES (Winged Reusable Sounding rocket) is a Japanese project to build a winged, single‑stage reusable suborbital rocket. It’s meant as a test bed for a future reusable orbital launcher or a crewed suborbital spaceplane.
The program is led by Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) with partners that include JAXA, IHI Corporation, universities, and international collaborators such as the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the University of Southern California (USC). The goal is to develop a stepped path toward more capable, reusable space vehicles.
WIRES is a family of small to mid‑size rockets. The early tests used a mix of alcohol and liquid oxygen for propulsion. The plan forwards includes three main lines: WIRES 13 (a non‑winged test), WIRES 15 (a winged demonstrator), and WIRES‑X (the full‑scale, winged prototype). The work builds on ideas from an earlier project called HIMES.
Progress over the years has included several subscale flights to prove key systems. In 2009 a small winged rocket called WIRES 11 reached about 500 meters in several flights using solid motors. In 2010 WIRES 12 reached around 1.1 kilometers with a hybrid engine, flying with a parachute and airbags for recovery. Later, WIRES 14 tested a winged body and a new recovery system using a hybrid CAMUI engine developed with Hokkaido University.
As of 2018, researchers were studying aerodynamics, navigation, guidance, structures, propulsion, and cryogenic tanks for future test models. The next steps were to fly WIRES 13 (non‑winged) and WIRES 15 (winged) as subscale tests, with the aim of validating systems and recovery methods. These tests were planned to occur at a Mojave Desert facility in the United States.
After the subscale tests, the plan called for the full‑scale WIRES‑X to fly. WIRES‑X would be about 8 meters long, with a launch mass around 4.6 tons and a 100‑kg payload. It would be powered by three LOX‑methane engines (about 20 kN thrust each) and could potentially serve as the first stage of a two‑stage‑to‑orbit system. In the long term, developers hoped the concept could lead to a suborbital crewed spaceplane for space tourism.
A key figure in the project, Koichi Yonemoto, helped establish a company named Space Walker in 2017. As of 2020, Space Walker and the Tokyo University of Science continued WIRES development, aiming for suborbital tests and later orbital ambitions. A subscale model, WIRES#014-3A, launched in March 2020 as part of ongoing work.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:11 (CET).