Astronaut Furukawa ‘Regaining Initial Mindset’ in Training for ISS Stay

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:08 JST, May 13, 2023

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) opened to the press astronaut Satoshi Furukawa’s training session on Friday ahead of his roughly six-month stay on the International Space Station after the summer.

The training was conducted in a facility that mimics the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” at JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. Furukawa, 59, was checking the procedures for opening the 1.5-meter-diameter air lock door and removing from the laboratory devices to be used for experiments.

In January, Furukawa was reprimanded after the team he led was found to have altered and fabricated data for medical experiments.

“I’ve been training with the aim of regaining my initial mindset,” Furukawa said after the training on Friday. “I hope to show through the training process that I can steadily operate the ISS.”

The training session on the day was his last in Japan before his flight.

Furukawa’s long-duration stay on the ISS will be the second of his career, having completed his first stay in 2011.