4,127 apply to be astronauts with Japan's space agency

The average age of JAXA's active astronauts is over 52. With their retirement age set at 60, there may be only two active astronauts left by 2030, the agency said.

Japan, extending its arbitrary and not very beneficial to the public labor conditions out into space.

Would be a nice job. Doing all the training but not actually going into space because the Russians are no longer selling rocket engines to USA. In other words, USA has one manned flight left for the next 10 years. Until they develop their own rocket engine.

IngvarToday  08:00 am JST

Would be a nice job. Doing all the training but not actually going into space because the Russians are no longer selling rocket engines to USA. In other words, USA has one manned flight left for the next 10 years. Until they develop their own rocket engine.

Not really. The Artemis rocket is pretty much ready and SpaceX have already taken crew members to the International Space Station. Given how the war in Ukraine has enraged even Kazakhstan, Russia may soon be the one to find itself without the ability to maintain a space program, Baikonur Cosmodrome in KZ is their main launch facility.

 In other words, USA has one manned flight left for the next 10 years. Until they develop their own rocket engine.

The US has a warehouse full of Russian Engines to support the remaining Atlas V launches. When things started heating up the Russians rushed shipping them to the US. After that there's three other Rockets, including the SpaceX Falcon 9, that can do a crewed mission.

That ISS only needs to make it to 2031. By that point it's already outlived it's original lifespan by 2X.

Nobody wants to be on this planet anymore

I remember as a youth wanting to be an astronaut. What a ride that would be!

The US has a warehouse full of Russian Engines to support the remaining Atlas V launches

The Russians said they had a lot of promise but in their opinion, it was easier to scrap them and start anew. Some Americans liked their chances of fixing them and bought them cheap.

So far the Russians are right. Th American side has wasted a huge amout of money and resources trying to fix them to no avail so far.

4,127 apply to be astronauts with Japan's space agency

There are some smart people who know when it is time to leave the planet. Good luck to them.

Good luck to them all. Space travel is for all people and we benefit from it. And JAXA is doing quite a few 'firsts' lately.

I think that, while Japanese astronauts will not be in the forefront of our expansion into space, with Japanese technical foresight they will eventually become the builders of much of our physical ability to live successfully in space. Actually living long term on the moon or Mars will be extremely physically debilitating to Human muscular physiology due to inadequate gravitational force and that 'stations' capable of maintaining one G conditions (spin) with 'commuting' to the surfaces of the various bodies to do whatever work is required to mine or study will be the future. I can imagine Panasonic Station 1 orbiting the Moon or Toyota Station 3 orbiting Mars housing the various functions and living quarters and even long term housing of families. Which might be preferable? Living in an American or Russian designed world or living in a Japanese designed world? But here in this article we see the enthusiasm that Japan, of ALL ages, has for that challenge...