Astronaut Furukawa Begins Twitter!
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa begins Twitter on December 2 (Thu.,) 2010. In December 2008, astronaut Furukawa was appointed as a flight engineer for the Expedition 28/29 crew (long-term stay mission) to the International Space Station (ISS), thus he is currently under training both in Japan and overseas. He is slated to live in the ISS for six months from around the end of May 2011.
Astronaut Furukawa will tweet about his training on the ground, then, during his expedition at the ISS, he will report on his daily scientific experiments from a scientist’s point of view as well as daily life and changes in his body in space based on his experiences as a medical doctor. This month, as he starts tweeting, he is under training in Russia as a backup crew for the ISS Expedition 26/27; therefore, we can expect to hear his real voice as he prepares for the expedition crew. Through Twitter, JAXA would like to dispatch more information about the activities of Astronaut Furukawa and events and life on the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo" of the ISS.
1. Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa Twitter
User name: Astro_Satoshi
URL?http://twitter.com/Astro_Satoshi
QR code: 
2. Brief personal history of Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa
| 1964 | Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
|---|---|
| 1989 | Received a doctorate in medicine from the University of Tokyo in 1989 and a doctor of philosophy degree in Medical Science from the same school in 2000. |
| 1989 - 1999 | Worked in the Department of Surgery at the University of Tokyo |
| 1989 - 1994 | Also worked for the Department of Anaesthesiology and the Department of Surgery of other hospitals to engage in clinical medicine and research in digestive organs |
| February 1999 | Selected as a Japanese astronaut candidate for the ISS mission by NASDA (current JAXA) along with Akihiko Hoshide and Naoko Sumino |
| April 1999 | Participated in basic training for ISS astronauts by NASDA (current JAXA) |
| January 2001 | Certified as an astronaut |
| April 2001 | Participated in advanced training for ISS astronauts based on international cooperation among ISS member organizations. Also, supported the development of the hardware and operation of the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo" of the ISS. |
| May 2004 | Certified as a Soyuz-TMA Flight Engineer. In June, he participated in training at NASA to be certified as a NASA Mission Specialist (MS). |
| February 2006 | Certified as an MS by NASA (Comment on MS certification) |
| May 2008 | Assigned as a backup crew member of the ISS Expedition 22/23. |
| December 2008 | Assigned as a flight engineer for the ISS Expedition 28/29 crew. He is currently under training as a back-up Expedition 26/27 crew member. |
3. Reference
http://iss.jaxa.jp/en/
|
|
