There was communication between Tokyo and outer space on Tuesday night, when Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the Prime Minister's Office spoke with astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard the International Space Station.
Noguchi has been on a long-duration mission aboard the ISS since last November. As Suga's constituency and Noguchi's hometown are both in Kanagawa Prefecture, Suga told Noguchi that "our residents are very excited about your spacewalk."
Noguchi said: "I am very happy that Japanese people, including those in Kanagawa Prefecture, have been supporting my mission in space. I would like to make use of these results in Japan's future space development."
Noguchi became the first non-American to travel into space aboard the privately owned spacecraft Crew Dragon. During his mission on the ISS, he conducted his fourth extravehicular activity -- better known as a space walk -- a record for Japanese astronauts. He is set to return to Earth on April 29, Japan time.
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