WASHINGTON: The United States plans to allocate two astronaut flight opportunities to the lunar surface for Japan on future missions, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

“Two Japanese astronauts will join future American missions, and one will become the first non-American ever to land on the moon,” Biden said at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio after their summit at the White House.

Kishida said, “I welcome the lunar landing by a Japanese astronaut as the first non-US astronaut.”

Only US astronauts were involved in NASA’s Apollo lunar-landing program in the 1960s and 70s. Japan may become the second country in the world to have someone set foot on the moon.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement that “America no longer will walk on the moon alone.” In December, US Vice President Kamala Harris said an international astronaut will land on the moon by the end of the decade.

At Wednesday’s summit, Japan agreed to provide the United States with a pressurized lunar rover currently being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Toyota Motor Corp. The rover, a mobile habitat designed to withstand the moon’s environment, is expected to be launched to space in 2031.

JIJI Press