Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will blast off Friday evening Japan time on his third space mission, a significant milestone in a year marking 60 years since the first manned spaceflight.
Hoshide's mission was initially scheduled to launch on Thursday evening but was pushed back by one day due to unfavorable weather conditions.
Hoshide, 52, spent time in space in 2008 and 2012. On his third mission, he will command the International Space Station, which has U.S., European and Russian astronauts aboard. Hoshide will be the second Japanese astronaut after Koichi Wakata to assume this important position.
Hoshide played rugby while he was a student at Keio University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and this is evident by his motto, "All for one, one for all" -- a phrase widely used in the sport. "Astronauts can do nothing by themselves," Hoshide said. "To successfully conduct my tasks, I will work together with my colleagues on the ISS and on the ground as if we were in a rugby scrum."
This mission marks the latest step in manned space development, which in the past six decades has gone from a matter of national prestige between superpowers to a field for international cooperation. A new era is dawning in which the commercial use of space will be commonplace.
In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Amid the intense Cold War U.S.-Soviet rivalry, the race to put a man in space was a prime opportunity for each nation to flaunt its strength. After losing this race, the United States later that year launched the Apollo program, which some considered to be reckless. But eight years later, the Apollo program succeeded in landing the first humans on the moon.
After the Cold War ended, nations took an approach centered on international cooperation. This change is epitomized by the ISS, a project involving 15 nations, including Japan, the United States, Russia and European nations.
-- Commercial use expanding
Hoshide will fly into space aboard the Crew Dragon, a spacecraft developed by U.S. company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). Astronauts use touch screens to operate this cutting-edge spacecraft, which can autonomously dock at the ISS.
"Gagarin probably never imagined an era of commercial spacecraft would come around so quickly," Hoshide said. "This will open the door to many people" traveling into space.
SpaceX is planning to carry four private citizens into orbit as soon as this autumn. Commercial use of the ISS, such as for deploying very small satellites, also is expanding and plans to construct an orbiting space hotel are being drawn up.
Manned space development is entering a new phase, as indicated by China's plan to construct its own space station.
Yasunori Matogawa, professor emeritus of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said: "In the years ahead, the main aims will be transporting large numbers of people and traveling to distant destinations such as the moon and Mars. This won't be possible with only the capabilities of certain nations and companies, so international cooperation will continue to be necessary."
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