Astronaut and former World Bank official Makoto Suwa has been assigned to a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station around 2027, Japan¡¯s space agency announced Friday.
¡°I feel deeply honored and truly happy to have been given the opportunity to make even a small contribution as part of this outstanding program,¡± Suwa told reporters Friday at a news conference organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
¡°I believe a relay baton has been passed steadily from one (Japanese) astronaut to the next,¡± he added. ¡°I want to receive that baton firmly and hand it on properly when the time comes for the next mission.¡±
This will be Suwa¡¯s first spaceflight. He will be the eighth Japanese astronaut to conduct a long-duration stay on the space station, and this will be the 15th mission involving Japanese astronauts.
The 49-year-old joined JAXA in July 2023 along with Ayu Yoneda, 30, a former physician with the Japanese Red Cross, as part of JAXA¡¯s first astronaut recruitment in 13 years. Both completed basic training and were certified as astronauts in October 2024.
Since November of that year, Suwa has been based at NASA¡¯s Johnson Space Center in the United States, engaging in relevant training in order to be ready for a mission.
As a long-duration space station crew member, he will be expected to carry out operations including maintenance and upkeep of facilities ¡ª such as Japan¡¯s Kibo module ¡ª as well as scientific experiments.
Suwa earned his master¡¯s degree in geosciences at Princeton University in June 2007. He later worked at the United Nations World Meteorological Organization before joining the World Bank in 2014, where he served as a senior disaster risk management specialist.
During Friday¡¯s conference, Suwa noted that the space station is scheduled to be deorbited at the end of 2030.
¡°We are entering a period where the end is in sight,¡± he stated. ¡°This may be the time to put the finishing touches on the scientific achievements accumulated so far, and to look ahead to the future.¡±
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