Mahathir Mohamad Instagram – I was invited to visit the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Tsukuba, about 50km from Tokyo, recently. The Japanese have been studying and experimenting space exploration for quite some time. Starting with small rockets, they have now progressed and are participating in the manning of the International Space Station (ISS) together with Russians and Americans. They carried out experiments and send rockets into space on behalf of other countries. The UAE, for example, decided to explore space and commissioned JAXA to launch their rocket. The visit and exhibition was very interesting. It showcased space satellites that had been launched. Because it was full size, including the capsule where the astronauts live, you are able to physically imagine these astronauts’ living condition. The space station is quite big about 8 feet in diameter so they can walk about inside the space ship without suits because the climate inside is the same with that of earth. But if they need to go out to do some maintenance work or something outside, they need to wear the space suit. The space suit of course has got provisions for supplying oxygen for them to breathe. I asked the President of JAXA, Dr Hiroshi Yamakawa and his team several questions. One of which is about the debris in outer space. Today there are about 50,000 debris in space which is actually orbiting the earth. I wanted to know whether it has any effect on our climate or not. There is no claim that it is affecting the climate. Beyond that, I wanted to know how they can send a rocket into space and actually docks at the Space Station. Because the Space Station cannot be seen with the naked eye. Even with the telescope, it is difficult to see, but the space capsule carrying the astronauts can actually dock the ISS. Tsukuba Space Center (Jaxa), Tsukuba City, Japan