TOKYO – The maker of popular Japanese sake brand Dassai will launch ingredients and equipment for the world’s first attempt to brew sake in space on an H3 rocket from south-western Japan on Oct 21.

Earlier this week, Dassai said the materials will take off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Kagoshima prefecture on the No. 7 H3 rocket alongside the HTV-X1, a new Japanese-built unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft that will deliver the sake-making materials to the International Space Station (ISS), where the sake will be brewed using “moromi”, a fermenting mash.

The brewer plans to sell a single 100mm bottle of the resulting sake for 110 million yen (S$934,000). All proceeds will be donated to Japanese space development projects with the aim of “contributing to the advancement of the space industry”, it said.

Arrangements for the brewing tests to be conducted by Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 55, who is currently aboard the ISS, are being made with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Testing in orbit will begin around 10 days after the launch, with the sake to be brewed in a so-called 1/6G environment, equivalent to the gravity level of the Moon’s surface, over a period of about two weeks. The sake is expected to be returned to Earth by the end of 2025.

Dassai estimates that about 500g of moromi will be harvested. After the fermentation in space is completed, 100ml of the raw sake collected will be used for research and the remaining 100ml will be refined and bottled for sale as “Dassai Moon – Made in Space”.

A Dassai official anticipates a slower fermentation process due to reduced liquid convection.

“I am curious to know what it will taste like,” the official said. KYODO