Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Prime Minister Receives Courtesy Call from Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki

Prime Minister Taro Aso received a courtesy call at the Prime Minister's Office from Ms. Naoko Yamazaki, an Astronaut of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), who has been selected as a crew member of the US space shuttle that is scheduled to be launched in February 2010, or later. The Prime Minister gave words of encouragement to her, saying, "Give good cheer to Japan."

Ms. Yamazaki will be the eighth Japanese astronaut, and the second female Japanese astronaut after Dr. Chiaki Mukai, to crew a space shuttle.

Three JAXA astronauts are now scheduled to go to space, namely, Astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is going to stay on the International Space Station (ISS) for about three months, Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who will be on the ISS for about six months after flying on the Soyuz spacecraft, and now also Astronaut Yamazaki.