Abstract
The H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) was developed from 1997 to 2013, a period when the number of experienced engineers declined due to transfer and retirement. This led to a loss of organizational knowledge that will detrimentally affect future large-scale projects. While there is a general awareness of this situation, no formal assessment has been made to facilitate its visualization, a lack which this study addresses. The current knowledge situation and the awareness of HTV development are visualized on the basis of a questionnaire responded to by JAXA and contract engineers. The results show a gradual loss of knowledge, together with a loss of the ability to sustain institutional knowledge, while budgetary limitations make it difficult to launch large projects. In this environment, individual engineers tend not to hand down their knowledge and experience, accordingly, a systematic institutional program to improve this situation is identified as an important subject for future study.
