Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata will join the fifth Crew Dragon space mission to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) next year, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Tuesday.
"It has been decided that I will be boarding the SpaceX's fifth Crew Dragon. I have been training for a long-duration mission aboard the ISS and it is an honor to board this new space vehicle for three consecutive years for JAXA Astronauts, succeeding Noguchi Soichi and Hoshide Akihiko," Wakata was quoted as saying in a statement.
The upcoming mission will also be his fifth space flight, the astronaut added, listing three US Space Shuttle flights in 1996, 2000, 2009, as well as a flight aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 2013. The 2022 flight will see Wakata top the list of Japanese astronauts in terms of the number of space journeys.
Along with Wakata, NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada have so far been assigned to the mission. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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