Japan Astronaut to Command Space Station February 17, 2011, 2:57 PM JST
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, 47-year-old Mr. Wakata, who debuted in space in 1996 and was the first Japanese astronaut to serve as a resident crew member on the ISS in 2009, will lead the team of astronauts on the station after spending about six months there. Saitama-born Mr. Wakata, a one-time engineer for Japan Airlines Corp. who enjoys baseball and skiing, will be shuttled to the ISS late 2013. He’ll be the first Asian commanding astronaut too, joining Belgian and Canadian nationals as the only non-American and non-Russian commanders so-far.
In a video conference from Houston, Texas Thursday, Mr. Wakata said, “It has been a challenge for Japan to have an astronaut in a leadership role. I am very honored in that sense (to have been chosen for the role),” he said, attributing Japan’s success with the transport craft Konotori in January and the country’s contribution to space research in general as creating the ideal environment for a Japanese astronaut to be appointed. “With the Japanese spirit of harmony, I hope to bring the team together,” he added.
Japan’s first space traveler was Mamoru Mohri in 1992, and JAXA has produced seven astronauts since then.
Space station could be abandoned in November BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: August 27, 2011
HOUSTON -- Astronauts may need to temporarily withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of this year if Russia is unable to resume manned flights of its Soyuz rocket after a failed cargo launch last week, according to the NASA official in charge of the outpost.
"Logistically, we can support [operations] almost forever, but eventually if we don't see the Soyuz spacecraft, we'll probably going to unmanned ops before the end of the year," Suffredini said in an interview Thursday, one day after Russia lost a Soyuz rocket with an automated Progress resupply ship bound for the space station.
A Soyuz rocket crashed Wednesday minutes after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The third stage of the Soyuz-U rocket was firing when something caused the vehicle's RD-0110 engine to turn off early, scattering debris in the Altai region of Siberia more than 1,000 miles east of the launch site, according to Russian media reports.
The Soyuz-U's third stage is almost identical to equipment used on the Soyuz-FG booster that propels human crews into orbit, according to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
"They have data showing that the engine was shut down due to what looks like low pressure on the fuel side. They saw data all the way down to when the vehicle broke up," Suffredini said. "In this case, they at least know where the potential anomaly area is, so they can focus their attention there."
NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin were preparing to launch to the space station Sept. 22, but that flight is likely going to be delayed until at least October in the wake of Wednesday's rocket failure.
The crew's Soyuz TMA-21 capsule can stay docked to the space station for up to 210 days. Its design life expires in late October, and Suffredini said he expects no problems continuing their mission until then.
The other half of the station's six-person crew -- NASA flight engineer Michael Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa -- are supposed to return home Nov. 16.
"That would be a philosophy that says let's go fix the problem and get a couple of test flights under our belt before we fly crew," Suffredini said. "You have to keep in mind we won't fly with this anomaly. We won't fly knowing we have this anomaly. I expect to determine root cause, repair root cause and fly these flights."
"I fully expect our Russian colleagues will resolve this anomaly in a timely fashion, and I expect them to do it in a safe fashion. Having the data they have on the anomaly is just fantastic," Suffredini said.