Posted on 10/24/2020 8:58:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Japan will recruit a group of potential astronauts in 2021 with an eye on sending them to outer space as part of a U.S.-led lunar exploration project, the first time the nation has conducted an intake since 2008, the science minister said Friday.
Minister Koichi Hagiuda said in a news conference the government will ask for applications around next fall, with Tokyo aiming to have a Japanese national on the moon for the first time in the latter half of the 2020s.
As part of the Artemis program, the United States is aiming to send humans to the moon by 2024 for the first time since the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 1972 Apollo 17 mission.
In July, Tokyo and Washington agreed to cooperate on lunar exploration, led by NASA. The two countries aim to provide Japanese crew with opportunities on the Gateway, a small spaceship that will orbit the moon, and to journey to the lunar surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
They’ve just got to resist the urge to fly into aircraft carriers.
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