Japanese astronaut Yui scheduled to travel to ISS around 2024
11:16, 16 June 2023
TOKYO. KAZINFORM - Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui is scheduled to depart on a long-term mission on the International Space Station around 2024, making it his second stay at the orbiting laboratory since 2015, the science ministry said Friday, Kyodo reports.
No Japanese astronauts are currently stationed on the ISS, but Satoshi Furukawa, 59, is slated to travel there from mid-August at the earliest.
Yui, a 53-year-old former Japanese Air Self-Defense Force pilot, spent about 142 days aboard the ISS as a flight engineer in 2015. He conducted various missions, including using a robotic arm to catch and dock Japan's unmanned Kounotori 5 cargo transporter which was carrying water and scientific equipment to the ISS.