Society

Japanese billionaire Maezawa to travel to ISS in December

May 13 (Japan Times) - MOSCOW – Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant, Yozo Hirano, will be the next tourists to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said Thursday.

Maezawa and Hirano will travel aboard a Russian “Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft that is scheduled for launch on Dec. 8, 2021, from the Baikonur cosmodrome” in Kazakhstan, the agency said in a statement.

Maezawa, 45, who made his fortune in online retail, also plans to participate in a 2023 mission around the moon aboard a Starship spacecraft of SpaceX, the Roscosmos rival of U.S. billionaire Elon Musk.

Maezawa and film producer Hirano, who will be documenting the mission, will begin pre-flight training in June at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, a closed town outside of Moscow, Roscosmos added.

It said that the flight will last 12 days and the crew will be led by Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Source: ANNnewsCH

Over 300 New Geoglyphs Discovered by Yamagata University in Nazca

Yamagata University, which has been conducting research on the Nazca geoglyphs in Peru, announced the discovery of over 300 new geoglyphs, depicting a variety of subjects, including humans and animals.

University of Tokyo Raises Tuition Fees for First Time in 20 Years

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Death toll rises to 9 in Japan's Ishikawa following heavy rain

Emergency officials say the death toll from record rainfall in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture has risen to nine. (NHK)

Russian military plane intrudes into Japanese airspace, Tokyo lodges protest

A Japanese government spokesperson says a Russian military airplane entered Japanese airspace three times on Monday. (NHK)

Kishida vows in meeting with Zelenskyy continued support for Ukraine

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has conveyed his country's intention to maintain support for Ukraine to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (NHK)

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