Latest Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Stories

The International Space Station has a new "engawa""”and it's open for business.Engawa is Japanese for "porch," and while that might seem like a strange thing for a space station to have, researchers have been looking forward to the addition for a long time. Space shuttle Endeavour delivered the Japanese-built platform to the ISS on July 22nd and astronauts attached it to Japan's Kibo1 science lab a day later. Now, when a science experiment requires a dose of hard vacuum...

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) President Keiji Tachikawa signed an agreement defining the terms of cooperation between the agencies on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The ceremony took place Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Building on the success of the NASA-JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), GPM will begin the measurement of global precipitation, a key climate factor. It is an...

A Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency researcher said Friday that Japan and India are planning to launch their first joint space research project this year, which will include an experiment to grow plants in zero gravity.The countries are going to launch an Indian-made satellite in October, which will carry Japanese laboratory equipment that is set to orbit for a week at a height of 370 miles.Noriaki Ishoika, a professor for Japan's space agency JAXA, said the satellite will look for growth of...

Japan's first lunar probe made a successful crash landing on the surface of the moon, marking the end of its 19-month mission, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced on Thursday.Kaguya, named after a moon princess of Japanese folklore, began orbiting the moon in 2007. The probe crash-landed on the lunar surface at 1825 GMT."The mission was a success. Thanks to Kaguya, we will have a very detailed map of the lunar surface," said JAXA spokesman Shinichi Sobue."With data...

Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko, Frank De Winne and Robert Thirsk of the 20th International Space Station crew launched in their Soyuz TMA-15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:34 a.m. EDT Wednesday to begin a six-month stay in space.Expedition 20 will mark the start of six-person crew operations aboard the International Space Station. All five of the international partner agencies "“ NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency...

In a string of zero-gravity tests sent in by the public, a Japanese astronaut rode on a "flying carpet" in outer space, folded up some laundry, and refreshed his eyes with eye drops.Koichi Wakata floated on a sheet in a cabin of the International Space Station in a video clip available online from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)."I flew on this magic carpet by using adhesive tape so that the soles of my feet stayed on it," Wakata said during the course of his...

Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to become a crewmember of the International Space Station, is testing a new line of clothing that stays clean and odor-free for more than a week of continuous wear.Wakata received the new wardrobe from Yoshiko Taya, who designed them to kill bacteria, absorb water, insulate the body and dry quickly.Taya's apparel, called J-Ware, could effectively reduce the necessary amount of clothing be carried into space during missions. Carrying heavy cargo such...

In an attempt to avoid falling behind in the Asian "space race," government reports showed on Friday that Japan is working toward putting a robot on the moon by 2020 and an astronaut by 2030, Reuters reported.Last year marked China's first space walk, and India launched its first unmanned moon mission. While China announced it eventually plans to put astronauts on the moon, no firm dates have yet been set, according to Beijing officials.The report said that Japan's first robot and astronaut...

A Japanese astronaut plans to attempt a variety of unusual activities in space this month. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has chosen 16 activity challenges for Koichi Wakata to perform while inside the Japanese laboratory Kibo at the International Space Station (ISS).The challenges were chosen from a list of 1,597 suggested activities from hundreds of people, including students and a 90-year-old man.In one challenge, 45-year-old Wakata will be putting cartoon physics to the...

Scientists in Japan are working to complete the nation's H-2B rocket that is slated to launch this year and intended to ferry supplies to the International Space Station.JAXA is working alongside Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to develop the rocket. "We expect to make a trial launch toward the middle of this year if all the manufacturing and intermediary steps proceed well," Tomihisa Nakamura, a researcher who heads the project at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told...