Meet the two Japanese astronauts who have the chance to walk on the Moon.

JAXA, Japan’s space agency, has given the green light to two astronauts who will be considered by NASA to participate in the Artemis missions aimed at returning to the Moon. In a recent press conference in Tokyo, 29-year-old Ayu Yoneda expressed her desire to become an astronaut capable of conveying the wonder of space. Alongside her, 47-year-old Makoto Suwa also shared his enthusiasm, highlighting that space exploration is at a transformative stage and that he wishes to adapt to these changes.

Yoneda, who was a surgeon at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, has become the youngest astronaut to receive approval from the agency, while Suwa, a former disaster prevention specialist at the World Bank, becomes the oldest astronaut to receive such certification. Within the Artemis program, NASA plans to send humans back to the Moon by 2026, more than 50 years after the last Apollo mission. This initiative also aims to bring the first woman and the first person of color to our natural satellite.

Both astronauts will move to the United States to continue their training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas while awaiting assignments for their future space missions. Yoneda and Suwa have become the first astronauts accredited by JAXA since 2011 and have completed a basic training program covering areas such as aircraft piloting, health management in space, and electrical engineering knowledge, after being selected as candidates in 2023.