NASA’s upcoming Artemis program will include a Japanese astronaut, said U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met in Tokyo on Monday to announce progress on collaboration for human and robotic lunar missions.
They confirmed their commitment to include a Japanese astronaut aboard the Lunar Gateway outpost and their shared ambition to see a future Japanese astronaut land on the moon as part of the Artemis mission.
“In recent years, the alliance between Japan and the United States has become stronger, deeper and more capable as we work together to meet new challenges, as important as opportunities, in a changing world. quickly, “the president of the United States added. .
“A good example of this: we saw the lunar rover in Japan … a symbol of how our space cooperation is taking off, looking at the moon and Mars. And I’m excited about the work we’re going to do together at Gateway Station. around the Moon and I hope the first Japanese astronaut will join us on the mission to the lunar surface under the Artemis program, “he said.
The United States and Japan are working to formalize the inclusion of the Japanese astronaut in Gateway through an implementation agreement later this year.
As part of ongoing collaborations on space and earth science missions, Biden and Kishida reaffirmed the continued cooperation of the United States and Japan in the exchange of Earth science data to improve the scientific understanding of Earth’s climate change.
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