Japan’s newest female astronaut wants to speak Japanese on the moon

Ever since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon in 1969, every word broadcast from the lunar surface has been spoken in English.

Ayu Yoneda, the Japanese space agency’s youngest astronaut at 31, envisions a different future.

“If I’m able to go to the moon, I want to share my thoughts in Japanese,” she said in an interview with The Japan Times. “I believe English is the only language that’s ever been spoken there, but I want to speak in Japanese, too — to connect with people at home and anyone around the world who speaks or is learning our language.”

A lunar mission would put her in extraordinarily rare company: To date, only 12 people — all American men — have ever walked on the moon. In the broader history, women account for roughly 100 of the more than 600 people who have ever flown to space.

Japan’s own record is similarly sparse. Since Chiaki Mukai first flew in 1994 and Naoko Yamazaki in 2010, no other Japanese woman has reached space. When Yoneda earned her certification in late 2024, she became the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) third female astronaut — fulfilling an ambition sparked as a schoolgirl by a single book.

From surgeon to astronaut

That book was a manga biography of Mukai, whose footsteps Yoneda now follows. Both women entered the astronaut corps as surgeons — an asset in an environment where emergency medical evacuation is impossible and crews must make rapid decisions about health problems.

As the fourth physician selected for Japan’s astronaut corps, Yoneda views clinical medicine as a natural fit for spaceflight.

“Where there are people, the chance of a medical event is never zero,” she said. “In a small crew, that background is useful. I have to make sure I keep my medical skills sharp right alongside my astronaut training.”

JAXA’s roster has long spanned varied backgrounds — from commercial pilots and engineers to disaster response experts. The agency’s selection process remains fiercely competitive: During its most recent drive, Yoneda and her classmate, Makoto Suwa, emerged as the only candidates chosen from a record 4,127 applicants.

After joining the corps, Yoneda moved her base to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, training alongside international peers while commuting regularly between Texas and Japan for JAXA duties.

Yoneda hopes to become the first astronaut to speak Japanese from the moon. | JAXA

Her initial two years were dedicated to basic training — a mandatory period to earn official certification before becoming eligible for flight assignments. For Yoneda, that meant learning an entirely new routine.

“Before I started, I genuinely had no idea what astronauts did all day,” Yoneda admitted. “Once you’re in, it turns into continuous study — it feels a lot like being a student again. Every technical system, piloting skill, and operational theory has dedicated instructors. Realizing just how many people it takes to support an astronaut was the most unexpected revelation for me.”

Despite the unusual nature of her work, her routine in Houston is surprisingly structured. Training at Johnson Space Center generally runs during standard working hours, punctuated by off-hour assignments such as night jet flights or ground-control shifts supporting live missions.

Between physical drills, her workload includes plenty of desk time — completing technical modules, studying for operational exams, and preparing outreach materials for JAXA.

Living in Houston required a practical shift of its own. Having spent years in Tokyo relying on public transit, Yoneda had to get comfortable behind the wheel — and now spends her time off on road trips across America.

The daily grind

The job is intensely physical. On any given day, Yoneda might move from studying spacecraft systems on a monitor to spending hours underwater in a spacesuit — using neutral buoyancy to simulate weightlessness — or operating the space station’s robotic arm. Her preparation also includes emergency survival drills for situations in which a spacecraft lands somewhere other than its intended destination.

To build mental resilience and teamwork in high-stress settings, space agencies also turn to exercises like a recent expedition in Italy, where Yoneda and her cohort spent four days mapping caverns and using a single rope to navigate 20- to 30-meter drops.

“It wasn’t really about mastering cave skills — it was about learning how to maintain the right mindset and contribute positively to the team in an unfamiliar, narrow, dark environment,” Yoneda said. “Climbing and descending cliffs on a single rope in the dark, you have no choice but to rely on each other.”

Yoneda was certified as JAXA’s third female astronaut in October 2024. | JAXA

Equally vital to that psychological prep, she added, is a culture within the astronaut corps that normalizes admitting mistakes.

“I really appreciate the culture within the astronaut group of not hiding failures,” Yoneda said. “Your mistakes aren’t just for you — they exist to elevate the entire organization. It’s deeply encouraging, and speaking up about your own missteps might help reassure someone else.”

In a field where men still outnumber women, Yoneda describes a working environment in which gender rarely enters the equation. In training, she observed, physical differences such as height, arm length or body size are simply practical variables — a larger frame might offer leverage in certain drills, but a smaller body makes maneuvering through tight spaces easier in others.

“Globally, astronauts are thriving regardless of gender, and at JAXA, too, we work in an environment where gender simply doesn’t matter,” Yoneda said. “Right now, the best thing I can do to encourage more women to apply is just work hard in this role — to show that anyone can succeed here.”

Back in the simulators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, her focus turns to mastering operational communications in her second language. While comfortable with daily and technical conversations, she admits her English remains a work in progress over the radio.

“What I find most difficult is that exchange between Earth and space,” Yoneda said. “You can’t see the other person’s face, and you’re relying entirely on audio that is often scratchy with static. On top of that, contact time with spacecraft is limited, so delivering information briefly, compactly, and without error is a real challenge — I’m still learning every day.”

Next stop: Artemis

Eligible for mission assignment, Yoneda stands ready as Japan prepares to land its first astronauts on the moon under NASA’s Artemis program, targeted for as early as 2028.

For now, she is imagining what it might be like to leave Earth behind.

“Floating in microgravity, with nothing touching your body at all — that isn’t something you get on Earth,” Yoneda said. “I want to close my eyes in that moment and just see what comes to mind.”

If she makes it to the moon, Yoneda hopes to look back at Earth and speak to those watching at home in her native tongue — a moment that would bring her childhood dream full circle. As for the historic first words, they remain unscripted.