Astronaut Wakata to Become 1st Japanese ISS Commander

Tokyo, Feb. 17 (Jiji Press)--The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA, said Thursday that astronaut Koichi Wakata will stay at the International Space Station on a six-month mission from late 2013 and serve as commander in the last two months.
He will be the first Japanese astronaut to assume the post. This will be the fourth space mission for Wakata, 47.
Wakata is the first Japanese astronaut who has completed a long-duration ISS program, with a stay of four and a half months from March 2009. On the mission, he played a key role in installing Japan's Kibo laboratory on the ISS.
At a televised news conference from JAXA's office in Houston, Wakata said that in leading the ISS team, he will cherish the Japanese spirit of harmony and have six crew members make the most of their skills in order to achieve maximum results in experiments and observations. He will fly to the ISS on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.
Wakata, known for his expertise in controlling the robotic arms of the U.S. space shuttle and the ISS, became the chief of the ISS operations branch of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in March 2010.
According to Wakata, Japan was the only country with no ISS commander selected from its space organization among ISS member states, which also include the United States, Russia, Canada and European nations.
But past achievements by Japanese astronauts and JAXA's success in installing the Kibo module and docking its cargo craft nicknamed "kounotori (stork)" to the ISS, Wakata said.
Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, 46, is slated to stay at the ISS for six moths from late May and his colleague Akihiko Hoshide, 42, will spend six months from late June in 2012.