President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have solidified their plans to send a Japanese Astronaut to the upcoming lunar space station, while also affirming the possibility of a Japanese Astronaut walking on the Moon during future Artemis missions.
Biden and Kishida met in Tokyo on Monday to continue discussions about an Implementing Agreement that could put a Japanese person on the Gateway space station. Each country has a commitment to share data on climate change. The discussion around Gateway personnel is part of ongoing conversations between the U.S. and Japan regarding NASA's upcoming missions to the Moon.
Gateway is part of NASA's larger effort to return to the Moon, a series of upcoming missions known as the Artemis program. Gateway will serve as a Moon-orbiting outpost, offering lunar-bound astronauts support for their visit. The lunar space station will serve as a staging point for future crewed missions to Mars, as well as serving as critical infrastructure for the Artemis missions. The first pieces of the lunar station will be launched in November of 2024.
In recent years, the alliance between Japan and the United States has grown stronger, deeper, and more capable as we work together to take on new challenges.
A White House fact sheet states that Japan and the U.S. want to place a Japanese astronaut on the surface of the Moon. The first crewed Moon missions since 1972 will be involved in Artemis, which will land astronauts on the lunar south pole. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the release: "Our shared ambition to see Japanese and American astronauts walk on the Moon together reflects our nations' shared values to explore space responsible and transparent for the benefit of humanity here on Earth."
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The U.S. and Japan team up is an opportunity to get more nations involved in Gateway, which is still a few years away. Getting back to the Moon is an exciting next step in space exploration and engineering.
This tiny moon-bound satellite could have a path for a lunar space station.
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