Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano speaks live with Japanese Astronaut Takuya Onishi, who is currently aboard the International Space Station

On 5 October，Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano invited the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Director Simonetta Di Pippo, UNOOSA Chief Niklas Hedman and Japanese Astronaut and the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) President Soichi Noguchi to his residence, on the occasion of the ASE 29th Planetary Congress held in Vienna, to discuss international cooperation in the field of outer space activities.
 
During the course of the evening, Astronaut Noguchi received a call from Japanese Astronaut Takuya Onishi on the International Space Station (ISS), and handed the call to Ambassador Kitano and Director Di Pippo. (See pictures above.)
 
Astronaut Onishi reported his activities and experiences on the ISS, and Ambassador Kitano conveyed his message of hope for further expansion of international cooperation through "KiboCUBE", the UN/Japan cooperation programme on CubeSat deployment from the ISS Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” (which means “hope” in Japanese).