April 02, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

TOKYO: Japan on Tuesday began recruiting astronauts for the first time in a decade in the wake of a successful mission to carry Japan’s maiden space laboratory to the International Space Station.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will pick three candidates using screening procedures such as aptitude tests, medical checks and interviews.

JAXA said it would announce its selections in February 2009.

The successful candidates will take various training programmes at Nasa for two years before being certified as astronauts.

Three out of 864 applicants passed astronaut certification during the agency’s last recruitment in 1998 and 1999.—AFP