News In Brief

Japan laying plans to loft into world satellite market

Japan will join the United States and Europe in the world satellite market in 1991, launching a large rocket designed and made with Japanese technology alone, officials announced Thursday.

''The decision to undertake the project is primarily intended to meet domestic needs, but it also is our longstanding desire to advance into the satellite market in the future,'' an official of the Science and Technology Agency said.

An agency official said the H-2 was intended to be a major rival to the European Ariane rocket.