News about Koichi Wakata

In yet another blow to the country's space ambitions, a Japanese rocket engine explodes into a massive fireball. The Epsilon S, a new iteration of the Epsilon rocket that failed to launch in October, erupted into flames about 50 seconds after ignition,' according to science and technology ministry spokesperson Naoya Takegami. As massive plumes of grey smoke rose into the atmosphere, the testing site in Akita's northern prefecture quickly turned into a raging inferno. 'We have no reports of injuries' from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which was investigating the origins of the explosion,' Takegami said.

On Thursday, a day after launching into orbit from Florida, the Crew Dragon spaceship dubbed Endurance docked with the station. The linkup occurred 260 miles above the Atlantic, just off the west coast of Africa. The crew includes two American astronauts, flight commander Nicole Aunapu Mann, 45, and pilot Josh Cassada, 49, as well as Japanese cosmonaut Koichi Wakata, 38, the first Russian aboard an American spacecraft in 20 years. It was the first time a Russian rocket came from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in 20 years, the result of a new deal reached despite tensions over the war in Ukraine and Russia's unhinged threats of nuclear wars.

In the midst of global tensions over the conflict in Ukraine, SpaceX's first female-led mission carried the first Russian to board an American spacecraft. Anna Kikina (left), the first indigenous woman to fly into space and the first female to take the commander's seat in a SpaceX Falcon, is among the remarkable Crew-5. This mission is scheduled to liftoff at 12 p.m. and the crew docket at the ISS on Thursday to begin their 150-day stay.

When NASA's next crew lands at the International Space Station in October, astronom and Marine Colonel Nicole Aunapu Mann will become the first Native American woman in space. Mann served in Iraq and Afghanistan before being recruited by NASA in 2013 and finishing her candidate training two years later. Mann, a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California, told Reuters, 'It has been a long journey, but it's so worth it.'

Endeavour and its seven astronauts touched down on Earth this afternoon. After a 16-day mission that saw them achieve all of their major construction goals at the International Space Station, the astronauts landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This morning, the shuttle crew was awakened by U2's song 'Beautiful Day', which was specially chosen by Mission Specialist Tom Marshburn.

After blasting off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, three astronauts are heading toward the International Space Station this morning. They are expected to make history by increasing the permanent crew of the orbiting observatory.