Japan, U.S. affirm greater collaboration in lunar exploration english.kyodonews.net

KYODO NEWS - Oct 5, 2019 - 08:04 | All, WorldThe Japanese and U.S. space agencies have agreed to step up collaboration in advancing human activities on the lunar surface as a way of realizing eventual human exploration of Mars.
Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and James Bridenstine, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, reached the agreement during a recent meeting in Tokyo.
(Image of NASA's Gateway lunar orbiting space station) [Image courtesy of NASA]Bridenstine welcomed JAXA's proposal to extend habitation and logistics missions with the use of Japanese HTV-X spacecraft and H3 launch vehicles for the Gateway project.
The last humans to walk on the Moon were American astronauts from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
(Image of a lunar orbiting space station under NASA's Artemis program) [Image courtesy of NASA]