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:

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.

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.

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.”

JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) will carry a rover jointly developed by DLR (German Aerospace Center) and CNES (National Centre for Space Studies). The rover will be released from the MMX spacecraft above the Martian moon Phobos, and will land on the moon to observe the surface and contribute to a safe and secure landing for the MMX spacecraft.

On June 20, 2023, at the Paris Air Show (Le Bourget) organized in Paris, France, JAXA President Yamakawa Hiroshi, Chair of the DLR Executive Board Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, DLR Executive Board Member and Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR Walther Pelzer, and CNES CEO Philippe Baptiste signed a trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) concerning cooperative activities on the rover within the MMX mission.

At the same occasion, DLR/CNES announced that the nickname for the rover has been chosen as “IDEFIX”.

JAXA cooperated with DLR and CNES during the successful Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission, which carried the DLR-CNES co-developed small lander “MASCOT”, and will once again cooperate for a successful mission for MMX.

On May 25th, President Yamakawa of JAXA and Dr. Phillipe Baptiste, CEO of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French Space Agency have signed Inter-Agency Agreement Concerning the Cooperation ㏌ the Field of Space Programmes at JAXA Sagamihara Campus. JAXA and CNES established long standing cooperation for about 30 years. Based on this cooperative and trust relationship between two agencies, the agreement aims to strengthen the cooperation creation structure which promotes and organizes new cooperative activities.

The agreement also sets forth basic terms and conditions for cooperation with CNES. Implementing Arrangement concerning Cooperative Activities related to Analysis of Return Samples by MicrOmega at the JAXA Extraterrestrial Sample Curation Center was signed as the first cooperation under this new inter-agency agreement.