14 DAY TRIAL // On Sunday, March 9, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata became the first Japanese crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to assume command of the orbital outpost. The ceremony marked the end of Expedition 38 and the beginning of Expedition 39, which Wakata will lead until the middle of May.
Wakata has been an ISS flight engineer with Expedition 38 since last November, and will step down as commander of Expedition 39 when the final half of the scheduled crew arrives, this May. Joining him on the station until then will be NASA astronaut Richard A. Mastracchio and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, of the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos).
Still aboard the station, and scheduled to depart this month, are Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky (RosCosmos), and NASA astronaut Michael S. Hopkins. This trio will be replaced by the other half of Expedition 39, made up of Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev (RosCosmos), and Steven R. Swanson, of NASA, Space reports.
“I am humbled to assume command of the space station. I am very proud as a Japanese to be given this important commandership of ISS,” Wakata said during the investment ceremony, which took place within the confines of the JAXA-built Kibo research module on the ISS.
“Welcome Wakata-san. It is indeed a special day for the human space program, especially for the people in Japan,” replied JAXA mission control, in Tsukuba, Japan. Yesterday, the astronaut replaced Expedition 38 commander Oleg Kotov, who has spent 166 days in space.
Wakata has a vast experience on the ISS, having served as flight engineer on Expeditions 18, 19, and 20. He was the first JAXA astronaut to step foot inside the ISS, in the winter of 2008. The astronaut returned home as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle Endeavour, and landed on earth on July 31, 2009, SLF Runway 15 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, in Florida.
Overall, Wakata has spent more than 280 days away from Earth. He is only the third JAXA astronaut to fly in space, and has been a member of the Japanese astronaut corps since 1992. His first flight was in 1996.
Now that Expedition 38 is concluded, Kotov, Ryazanskiy, and Hopkins will return home today, March 10, aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft that delivered them to the station nearly 6 months ago.
“I am really glad to pass command of the space station to my friend, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata. So, now it is time to learn Japanese language aboard the station, so arigato!” Kotov said during yesterday's ceremony.
He and his two fellow astronauts will land their Soyuz capsule in the steppes of Kazakhstan later today.