Hometown Cheers Japanese Astronaut
Drums pounded and hundreds of hometown well-wishers roared with joy Tuesday as Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi blasted off aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery.
About 300 people braved a tropical storm and crowded into a brightly decorated reception room in the city hall in Noguchi's hometown, Chigasaki, to watch him launch into space with six other astronauts. The coastal city is just south of Tokyo.
"It's magnificent," said local resident Takakazu Ishii, 26, after watching the liftoff. "It's amazing."
When the launch was officially declared a success, the hall was filled "banzai" cheers and the crackling of firecrackers.
"We are praying for you," said Mayor Nobuaki Hattori. "Mr. Noguchi, good luck!"
Noguchi, 40, is the sixth Japanese astronaut to go into space, five of them aboard U.S. spacecraft. A Japanese TV journalist was the first, having paid his way onto a flight with the Russians.
The Discovery launch was shown live on big screens across Japan, from a plaza in front of one of Tokyo's busiest train stations to a holding room at the headquarters of JAXA, Japan's space agency. Millions more watched it live on NHK, Japan's public television network.
"It appears to be going very smoothly," Mamoru Mori, Japan's first astronaut, told NHK shortly after the launch.
Japan, long the premier space power in Asia, has closely tied its program to the United States. Since 1992, it has relied exclusively on the United States for manned flights, and JAXA, like NASA, is also a major participant in the International Space Station.
But China has recently eclipsed Japan by sending its first astronauts into orbit, a feat Japan has yet to accomplish on its own.
The Discovery's launch was the first shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy 2 1/2 years ago, when the spacecraft crashed during its return to Earth, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
NASA had to put off the initial launch after a fuel gauge mistakenly read empty instead of full, a potentially disastrous problem that could cause the spacecraft's engines to cut out too early or too late during the ascent.
"It's still kind of scary when you think about the Columbia accident," said Harumi Horinouchi, a local housewife who came to Chigasaki's city hall with her daughter to watch the launch. "But we are proud of him. And we await his return."