AFP wrote:
Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki will board the US shuttle Atlantis when it launches in 2010, becoming the second Japanese woman to blast into space, the country's space agency announced Tuesday.
The 37-year-old, who has a six-year-old daughter, would be the seventh Japanese astronaut to go into space.
She was selected more than nine years after being chosen as an astronaut candidate for the International Space Station (ISS), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
The Atlantis is scheduled to lift off on February 11, 2010. During the two-week flight, the shuttle will carry supplies to the space station. Yamazaki is expected to operate the shuttle's robot arm . . .
[SIZE="1"][color="Orange"](Not the actual robot arm that Naoko will be operating)[/color][/SIZE]
AFP (continued) wrote:
. . . "My next ambition is to stay for an extended period on the ISS and afterwards, if Japan aims for the moon, I would also like to," she said, referring to Japan's goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.
She said she was inspired to become an astronaut as a teenager after watching the Challenger shuttle explode live on television in 1986, killing all seven astronauts on board. . . . more
Perhaps that last part could've been worded a bit better.
But with all that training on a robot arm, she must play a mean UFO catcher.
