Tokyo (AFP) – Japan’s space agency, JAXA, names its first new astronaut candidates in over 13 years, with a surgeon and a climate scientist chosen from more than 4,000 applicants. Ayu Yoneda, a 28-year-old surgeon, will become just the third woman ever to join the two-year space training programme. “I was elated” she says, “the reason I dreamt about becoming an astronaut goes back to my childhood.”
