14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announce the selection of astronaut Takuya Onishi as flight engineer for an upcoming mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Onishi will fly into space for the first time around June 2016, as part of the Expedition 48/49 crew. Like all astronauts going to the station, he will be launched and returned to Earth aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft that will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan.
The astronaut was selected for training in February 2009, and completed all basic preparedness tests in July 2011. He has participated in the 15th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 15) training mission, and has been honing his skills ever since. He is soon scheduled to begin Soyuz training procedures in Russia.
During his 6-month stay in space, Onishi will be a flight engineer, in charge of handling scientific experiments, ensuring that the station operates optimally in low-Earth orbit, and taking care of day-to-day operations aboard the lab, SpaceRef informs.