JAXA selects 2 new astronaut candidates

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<strong><font size="3"><font color="#800000"><font face="Arial"><p><br /><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2">Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has selected two individuals to be astronaut candidates. This is the first selection of Japanese astronaut candidates in almost 10 years. <br /><br />They are Takuya Onishi, 33, and Kimiya Yui, 39. Onishi is an airline pilot on 767s and Yui is a jet fighter pilot in the Japan Defense Force. They were selected from a pool of approximately 1000 candidates. They will have to go through training at the NASA and elsewhere. This&nbsp;will raise to 10 the number of JAXA astronauts.&nbsp;&nbsp;The hope is that they will someday&nbsp;work on scientific experiments at Japan's KIBO space laboratory on the ISS, as well as in the maintenance and operations of the station. With the end of the STS program, they will likely go into orbit aboard a Soyuz or other transport.</font></span></p></font></font></font></strong><p><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2"><img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/9/14/19bcda9e-9eeb-4749-9e6d-9c3646936a59.Medium.jpg" alt="" /></font></span></p><p><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2">Yui (l) and Onishi (r)</font></span></p><p><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2">profiles of other Japanese astronauts</font></span></font></span></p><p><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2"><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2">other article about Onishi and Yui</font></span></font></span></p><p><span class="story"><font face="Arial" size="2">V3K<br /><br /></font></span></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>