Two Japanese astronauts will take part in future American missions. One of them will be the first non-American to land on the Moon.
The United States plans to return to the Moon as part of its Artemis program. The Artemis program was inaugurated in 2022 with Artemis 1, which successfully flew a vacuum craft around the moon. Artemis 2 is scheduled for 2025 and is expected to send four astronauts on a trip around the Moon, without landing there. Artemis 3 is planned for 2026 and will send three Americans and one Canadian, already in training. The European Space Agency is also to be reserved seats on Artemis missions in exchange for significant technological contributions. In January, Japan became the fifth country to have successfully landed on the moon, by landing a robot there. The composition of its crew is not yet known. China plans to send humans to the lunar surface by 2030. The first Artemis mission to return is scheduled to take place in 2026, but the composition of the crew has not yet been announced.