[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Will Japan space briefs pass smell test?
Pair worn by Wakata due for re-entry after monthlong trial
By MARCIA DUNN
The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL,, Fla. (AP) In what might embarrass less-adventurous souls, astronaut Koichi Wakata is returning to Earth with the underwear he wore for a solid month during his space station stay, and scientists will check them out.
They're experimental high-tech undies designed in Japan to be odor free.
The Japanese spaceman described his underwear test Thursday as the shuttle Endeavour and its crew aimed for a touchdown the next morning. The astronauts released some minisatellites, their final job before Friday's re-entry, and said it was time to come home after more than two weeks aloft.
Wakata has been off the planet for 4 1/2 months.
"I haven't talked about this underwear to my crew members," Wakata said in an interview, drawing a big laugh from his six shuttle colleagues. "But I wore them for about a month, and my station crew members never complained for about a month, so I think the experiment went fine."
The Japanese underwear, called J-Wear, is a new type of antibacterial, water-absorbent, odor-eliminating clothing designed for space travel. The line includes shirts, pants and socks as well. Wakata tested all of them during his mission; he had four pairs of the silver-coated underwear, a cross between briefs and boxers.
"We'll see the results after landing," Wakata said.
J-Wear is billed as being antistatic and flame retardant, which is especially important for spaceship wear. The cotton and polyester clothes are also seamless, making them lighter and more comfortable, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The goal is "comfortable everyday clothes for life in a spaceship."
Another Japanese astronaut wore some J-Wear items during a shuttle flight last year, but had only 16 days in orbit to try them out.
NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, stressed the importance of testing new products, especially those aimed at improving astronauts' quality of life. There's no way to wash clothes in space. Station residents simply ditch dirty outfits, along with other garbage, in no longer needed cargo ships that are sent plunging in flames through the atmosphere.
"Eventually, we're going to do exploration. We're going to go to the moon. We're going to go beyond the moon someday, and little things like this will seem like really, really big things when you're far away from Mother Earth," Suffredini told reporters.
Good weather was forecast for Friday's late morning landing, with the rain expected to hold off until afternoon at NASA's spaceport.
On Thursday afternoon, NASA cleared Endeavour to come home, after analyzing wing and nose images beamed down by the crew Wednesday in one final sweep for micrometeorite damage.
"I'm ready to get back . . . I think I have a landing in me, so don't want to get anybody on the ground worried about that," commander Mark Polansky told AP.
In one of NASA's longer shuttle flights, Polansky and his crew put a new addition onto the international space station — a porch for Japan's massive $1 billion lab — and freshened up the place with batteries, experiments and spare parts. They rocketed into space July 15.
Thursday marked Day 15 in space for Polansky and all but one of his crew. For Wakata, Thursday marked Day 137. He flew to the ISS in March, becoming the first person from Japan to live at the orbiting outpost.
Wakata said he's longing for sushi.
"That's the first thing that I'd like to have, and also a hot spring in Japan sometime in the near future," Wakata said.
Earlier in the day, the shuttle astronauts released a small canister containing a navigation and rendezvous experiment. Five hours later, the crew launched an atmospheric density experiment so scientists can better understand how orbiting objects move and eventually come down.
Over at the space station, meanwhile, the major air-purifying system on the U.S. side failed again, and the crew spent the day trying to fix the equipment. Engineers suspect a heating element is causing a short.
A carbon dioxide-removal system on the Russian side is still operating properly, and the six astronauts have backup methods for cleansing the cabin atmosphere. But the American system is critical for long-term space station operations. It overheated over the weekend and shut down, but flight controllers managed to work around the problem, at least for a few days.
As for NASA's next station visit, officials are targeting an Aug. 25 launch for Discovery, provided that a few remaining tests of the fuel tank shows the insulating foam is attached properly.
An unusually large amount of foam broke off Endeavour's fuel tank during liftoff. Deputy shuttle program manager LeRoy Cain said dust or other debris may have gotten on the tank and not been cleaned off prior to the foam application. Some of the workers may not have been familiar enough with the job, he noted.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Six of 12 U.S. deserters since 2008 still uncaptured, ministry reveals
YOKOSUKA (Kyodo) At least 12 U.S. service members have deserted in Kanagawa, Nagasaki and Okinawa prefectures since May 2008 and six remain unaccounted-for, it was discovered Thursday from information gathered from U.S. forces, according to the Foreign Ministry and local-level authorities.
Japan and the United States agreed in May 2008 that Japanese authorities would detain U.S. deserters at the request of the U.S.
While the latest finding shows finding deserters isn't easy, the information has not been disclosed to the public.
From September 2008 to June, Japanese authorities received requests to detain seven deserters from Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture, of whom five have been caught and the remaining two are still at large.
At Sasebo base in Nagasaki, three service members have been unaccounted-for since 2008, while in Okinawa, two are believed to have deserted last October, of whom one was captured in February.
Under the bilateral agreement, the U.S. provides information on deserters to the Japanese and requests prefectural police forces to detain them. Once they are in custody, deserters are turned over to the U.S.
Information on deserters is shared among ministries and agencies as well as local authorities so they can work to confirm their whereabouts and prevent them from leaving the country, but the information is not disclosed to local residents.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Japan still keen on F-22 despite U.S. obstacles
(Kyodo News) Japan will keep seeking information on the U.S. F-22 fighter jet as it looks for a candidate to replace its aging F-4EJs, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday, shrugging off the decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to end funding for the stealthy aircraft that is barred from export.
Katashi Toyota, the ministry's press secretary, told reporters that Tokyo hasn't quite given up on its hope of acquiring the F-22, which is one of six candidates under consideration. The House passed a defense spending bill Thursday that scuttled the F-22 program.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said earlier in the day that Tokyo should consider "an alternative plan," but Toyota said the remarks don't indicate Japan intends to stop exploring the option.
"We recognize the F-22 as one of the world's most advanced aircraft and will continue to gather information on it as well as on other candidate models," Toyota said.
Tokyo has been eager to make the F-22 its next-generation mainstay fighter in light of its radar-evading stealth capabilities. Export of the F-22 is prohibited by U.S. law, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April proposed halting its production.
Under Gates' proposal, F-22 production would be halted at 187 planes. The Pentagon instead wants to produce 500 of the more modern F-35 fighter over the next five years, with an eye to eventually producing 2,400 of the planes.
The five other models Japan is studying are the F/A-18 and the F-15FX, both produced in the U.S., the F-35, which is being jointly developed by the U.S., Britain and other countries, the Eurofighter, made by a consortium of European manufacturers, and the Rafale of France. Only the F-22 and F-35 are stealth fighters.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Half of colleges unable to fill classes
(Kyodo News) Nearly half of all colleges nationwide failed to meet their enrollment quotas for the academic year that began in April as the shrinking birthrate continued to deprive them of students, a survey by a school support group showed Thursday.
Of the 265 private four-year colleges that came up short, 31 didn't even get half of their fixed numbers, said the survey conducted by the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan.
"The gap is widening between schools that devote managerial efforts and those that do not," an official of the group said.
The group of 265 represent 46.5 percent of all such colleges in Japan.
Among 356 two-year private junior colleges in the survey, 69.1 percent were underenrolled, marking the third consecutive year in which more than 60 percent of such schools suffered from poor enrollment, the survey said.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Will Japan space briefs pass smell test?
Pair worn by Wakata due for re-entry after monthlong trial
By MARCIA DUNN
The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL,, Fla. (AP) In what might embarrass less-adventurous souls, astronaut Koichi Wakata is returning to Earth with the underwear he wore for a solid month during his space station stay, and scientists will check them out.
They're experimental high-tech undies designed in Japan to be odor free.
The Japanese spaceman described his underwear test Thursday as the shuttle Endeavour and its crew aimed for a touchdown the next morning. The astronauts released some minisatellites, their final job before Friday's re-entry, and said it was time to come home after more than two weeks aloft.
Wakata has been off the planet for 4 1/2 months.
"I haven't talked about this underwear to my crew members," Wakata said in an interview, drawing a big laugh from his six shuttle colleagues. "But I wore them for about a month, and my station crew members never complained for about a month, so I think the experiment went fine."
The Japanese underwear, called J-Wear, is a new type of antibacterial, water-absorbent, odor-eliminating clothing designed for space travel. The line includes shirts, pants and socks as well. Wakata tested all of them during his mission; he had four pairs of the silver-coated underwear, a cross between briefs and boxers.
"We'll see the results after landing," Wakata said.
J-Wear is billed as being antistatic and flame retardant, which is especially important for spaceship wear. The cotton and polyester clothes are also seamless, making them lighter and more comfortable, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The goal is "comfortable everyday clothes for life in a spaceship."
Another Japanese astronaut wore some J-Wear items during a shuttle flight last year, but had only 16 days in orbit to try them out.
NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, stressed the importance of testing new products, especially those aimed at improving astronauts' quality of life. There's no way to wash clothes in space. Station residents simply ditch dirty outfits, along with other garbage, in no longer needed cargo ships that are sent plunging in flames through the atmosphere.
"Eventually, we're going to do exploration. We're going to go to the moon. We're going to go beyond the moon someday, and little things like this will seem like really, really big things when you're far away from Mother Earth," Suffredini told reporters.
Good weather was forecast for Friday's late morning landing, with the rain expected to hold off until afternoon at NASA's spaceport.
On Thursday afternoon, NASA cleared Endeavour to come home, after analyzing wing and nose images beamed down by the crew Wednesday in one final sweep for micrometeorite damage.
"I'm ready to get back . . . I think I have a landing in me, so don't want to get anybody on the ground worried about that," commander Mark Polansky told AP.
In one of NASA's longer shuttle flights, Polansky and his crew put a new addition onto the international space station — a porch for Japan's massive $1 billion lab — and freshened up the place with batteries, experiments and spare parts. They rocketed into space July 15.
Thursday marked Day 15 in space for Polansky and all but one of his crew. For Wakata, Thursday marked Day 137. He flew to the ISS in March, becoming the first person from Japan to live at the orbiting outpost.
Wakata said he's longing for sushi.
"That's the first thing that I'd like to have, and also a hot spring in Japan sometime in the near future," Wakata said.
Earlier in the day, the shuttle astronauts released a small canister containing a navigation and rendezvous experiment. Five hours later, the crew launched an atmospheric density experiment so scientists can better understand how orbiting objects move and eventually come down.
Over at the space station, meanwhile, the major air-purifying system on the U.S. side failed again, and the crew spent the day trying to fix the equipment. Engineers suspect a heating element is causing a short.
A carbon dioxide-removal system on the Russian side is still operating properly, and the six astronauts have backup methods for cleansing the cabin atmosphere. But the American system is critical for long-term space station operations. It overheated over the weekend and shut down, but flight controllers managed to work around the problem, at least for a few days.
As for NASA's next station visit, officials are targeting an Aug. 25 launch for Discovery, provided that a few remaining tests of the fuel tank shows the insulating foam is attached properly.
An unusually large amount of foam broke off Endeavour's fuel tank during liftoff. Deputy shuttle program manager LeRoy Cain said dust or other debris may have gotten on the tank and not been cleaned off prior to the foam application. Some of the workers may not have been familiar enough with the job, he noted.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Six of 12 U.S. deserters since 2008 still uncaptured, ministry reveals
YOKOSUKA (Kyodo) At least 12 U.S. service members have deserted in Kanagawa, Nagasaki and Okinawa prefectures since May 2008 and six remain unaccounted-for, it was discovered Thursday from information gathered from U.S. forces, according to the Foreign Ministry and local-level authorities.
Japan and the United States agreed in May 2008 that Japanese authorities would detain U.S. deserters at the request of the U.S.
While the latest finding shows finding deserters isn't easy, the information has not been disclosed to the public.
From September 2008 to June, Japanese authorities received requests to detain seven deserters from Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture, of whom five have been caught and the remaining two are still at large.
At Sasebo base in Nagasaki, three service members have been unaccounted-for since 2008, while in Okinawa, two are believed to have deserted last October, of whom one was captured in February.
Under the bilateral agreement, the U.S. provides information on deserters to the Japanese and requests prefectural police forces to detain them. Once they are in custody, deserters are turned over to the U.S.
Information on deserters is shared among ministries and agencies as well as local authorities so they can work to confirm their whereabouts and prevent them from leaving the country, but the information is not disclosed to local residents.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Japan still keen on F-22 despite U.S. obstacles
(Kyodo News) Japan will keep seeking information on the U.S. F-22 fighter jet as it looks for a candidate to replace its aging F-4EJs, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday, shrugging off the decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to end funding for the stealthy aircraft that is barred from export.
Katashi Toyota, the ministry's press secretary, told reporters that Tokyo hasn't quite given up on its hope of acquiring the F-22, which is one of six candidates under consideration. The House passed a defense spending bill Thursday that scuttled the F-22 program.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said earlier in the day that Tokyo should consider "an alternative plan," but Toyota said the remarks don't indicate Japan intends to stop exploring the option.
"We recognize the F-22 as one of the world's most advanced aircraft and will continue to gather information on it as well as on other candidate models," Toyota said.
Tokyo has been eager to make the F-22 its next-generation mainstay fighter in light of its radar-evading stealth capabilities. Export of the F-22 is prohibited by U.S. law, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April proposed halting its production.
Under Gates' proposal, F-22 production would be halted at 187 planes. The Pentagon instead wants to produce 500 of the more modern F-35 fighter over the next five years, with an eye to eventually producing 2,400 of the planes.
The five other models Japan is studying are the F/A-18 and the F-15FX, both produced in the U.S., the F-35, which is being jointly developed by the U.S., Britain and other countries, the Eurofighter, made by a consortium of European manufacturers, and the Rafale of France. Only the F-22 and F-35 are stealth fighters.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009
Half of colleges unable to fill classes
(Kyodo News) Nearly half of all colleges nationwide failed to meet their enrollment quotas for the academic year that began in April as the shrinking birthrate continued to deprive them of students, a survey by a school support group showed Thursday.
Of the 265 private four-year colleges that came up short, 31 didn't even get half of their fixed numbers, said the survey conducted by the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan.
"The gap is widening between schools that devote managerial efforts and those that do not," an official of the group said.
The group of 265 represent 46.5 percent of all such colleges in Japan.
Among 356 two-year private junior colleges in the survey, 69.1 percent were underenrolled, marking the third consecutive year in which more than 60 percent of such schools suffered from poor enrollment, the survey said.
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