National Apr. 02, 2008 - 05:08AM JST ( 1 )

TOKYO —

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Tuesday began recruiting astronauts for the first time in a decade in the wake of a successful mission to carry Japan’s maiden space laboratory to the International Space Station.

JAXA will pick three candidates using screening procedures such as aptitude tests, medical checks and interviews. It will announce its selections in February 2009.

The successful candidates will take various training programs at NASA for two years before being certified as astronauts.

Three out of 864 applicants passed astronaut certification during the agency’s last recruitment in 1998 and 1999.

Japan has an increasingly ambitious space program. The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour returned on March 26 after beginning to set up Japan’s first space laboratory, Kibo.

With its installation, Japan gains a foothold on the International Space Station alongside the United States, Russia and Europe.

Kibo will be the largest by far of the four research modules on board the station and represents the most important Japanese input to the project, to which Japan has contributed a total of $10 billion.

AFP