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Feb. 9, 2024 Updated
Director General of the ISAS, JAXA, KUNINAKA Hitoshi, elected as an AIAA Honorary Fellow.

KUNINAKA Hitoshi, Director General of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAXA has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
AIAA is the world's largest aerospace engineering society, and individuals who have contributed to the development of aerospace for a long time and made outstanding achievements are selected as Honorary Fellows.
Director General Kuninaka's comments are as follows.

The AIAA Honorary Fellows is the highest level of the AIAA title, first awarded in 1932 to Orville Wright, the younger brother of the Wright brothers, and since then 238 have been elected through 2023.

As I look at the list of Honorary Fellows, there are many legends of fluid mechanics and aerospace engineering who have been named after NASA field centers and aerospace companies. Also they are familiar to us from textbooks such as,
Joseph S. Ames (1934),Neil A. Armstrong (1971),Richard H. Battin (1990), Donald W. Douglas (1936), Charles Draper (1958),Hugh L. Dryden (1939),Leroy Grumman (1951), George W. Lewis (1940).Glenn L. Martin (1937),James McDonnell (1968), John K. Northrop (1969), Ludwig Prandtl (1933), Wernher von Braun (1970), Theodore von Kármán (1936)
Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate the year of the elected.
Dr. Itiro Tani is the only Japanese recipient of this Honorary Fellow.

With the title of "for development of electric propulsion to acquire the first material from an asteroid and work on high voltage systems in space”, I am deeply honored and humbled by this great honor. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the many friends and colleagues for their tremendous support.
I will continue to devote myself to the promotion of aerospace/space science so that I may live up to the name of this title.

KUNINAKA Hitoshi
Director General of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAXA

Jan. 11, 2024 Updated
JAXA and NRC sign framework agreement

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have signed a framework agreement for collaborative research in the field of aviation.

Since 2012, JAXA and the NRC have been forging collaborative relationships through joint research in the aviation field. The launch of the NRC’s Japan office in October 2019 helped strengthen the relationship between the two organizations. Currently, JAXA and the NRC are conducting research on lightning strike protection of composite materials and particle ingestion into engines.

With the conclusion of the agreement, JAXA and the NRC will further deepen the collaborative ties, creating more opportunities for continued cooperation.

Signing ceremony at AIAA SciTech, January 9, 2024	(Left) Mouhab Meshreki, Director General, Aerospace Research Centre, NRC , and (Right)WATANABE Shigeya, Deputy Director General, Aviation Technology Directorate, JAXA

Signing ceremony at AIAA SciTech, January 9, 2024
(Left) Mouhab Meshreki, Director General, Aerospace Research Centre, NRC , and (Right)WATANABE Shigeya, Deputy Director General, Aviation Technology Directorate, JAXA

Sep. 8, 2023 Updated
Towards the Operations and Utilization of the ISS Beyond 2025 - Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) Meeting Held

On August 22, 2023, the International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board (ISS MCB Meeting) was held at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in United States, and JAXA participated as a member of the ISS Partnership.

The ISS MCB Meeting serves as the top-level international coordination meeting for the ISS program, where important matters related to the operations and utilization of the ISS are regularly discussed.

This meeting marked the first of its kind after Canada, Europe, Russia, Japan, and the United States each committed to participating in the extension of ISS operations beyond 2025. Representatives from each partner discussed topics related to the operation of the ISS as an orbital laboratory, including crucial research and technology demonstrations for future space exploration. Furthermore, they discussed the role and utilization of the ISS for the benefit of humanity, as well as its role in commercial economic activities in Low Earth Orbit in the 2030s and the expansion of human activities to the Moon and beyond.

Following the meeting, a joint statement was issued:

Sep. 4, 2023 Updated
Live Coverage: Launch of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) onboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 47 [Rescheduled]

JAXA will provide the live coverage of the launch of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) onboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 47 (H-IIA F47).

Broadcast Time: around 8:10 a.m. to 9:40 a.m. (JST) on September 7, 2023/ 23:10 p.m. on September 6 to 0:40 a.m. (UTC) on September 7, 2023
Launch Time: 8:42:11 A.M. (JST) on September 7, 2023 / 23:42:11 p.m. (UTC) on September 6, 2023
Launch Site: Launch Site: JAXA Tanegashima Space Center

The broadcast date and time are subject to change.

Jul. 21, 2023 Updated
Dr. Oki Riko, Director of JAXA/EORC received NASA Administrators Agency Honor Awards, the first Japanese person for this award

Dr. Riko Oki, Director of Earth Observation Research Center, Space Technology Directorate I, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) received the Exceptional Public Service Medal as the NASA Administrators Agency Honor Awards 2022. The awards ceremony was held at the U.S. Embassy in Japan on July 11, 2023.

Signing ceremony of the JAXA-CNES Inter-Agency Agreement

The Exceptional Public Service Medal is awarded to individuals who have achieved outstanding performance for NASA missions. Dr.Oki has led the cooperation on precipitation observations for Japan-U.S. collaborative satellites over the years, including serving as a research scientist for the Japan-U.S. joint mission “Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM),” initiating the follow-on joint mission “Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)” In addition, she served as JAXA TRMM/GPM Program Scientist for the research on precipitation observations.

JAXA's precipitation radars onboard the TRMM and the GPM Core Observatory are capable of observing the three-dimensional structure of precipitation with high accuracy, leading to the development of the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP), which provides global precipitation estimate in near real time. The GSMaP is widely used in countries of Asia Pacific region and around the world. Furthermore, it is expected that further Japan-U.S. cooperation in the field of Earth observation will continue and develop in the future. In this regards, JAXA is planning a new satellite, the Precipitation Measuring Mission (PMM), expecting to participate in the Atmosphere Observing System (AOS), a next generation mission of NASA. To advance its plan, JAXA launched the PMM Project Team.

The awards ceremony for NASA staff and awardee in the U.S. was held at NASA in the U.S. on April 26, 2023. However, the award ceremony for Dr. Oki was specially held at the U.S. Embassy in Japan on the occasion of the visit of the Earth Science Division executives to Japan. At the award ceremony, Dr. Karen St. Germain, Director of Earth Science Division (NASA) handed Dr. Oki a certificate and a medal in the presence of Mr. Raymond F. Greene, Deputy Chief of Mission.

Dr. Oki is the first Japanese to win this honorable award. At the award ceremony, she named the researchers and engineers of both in Japan and the U.S. with whom she has cooperated, and said, “I would like to share this award with my colleagues. I hope young researchers will archive more in the future.” Mr. Greene, Deputy Chief of Mission commented “She is the first Japanese person to win the award, but we’re confident she won’t be the last.”

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