Amelia Earhart

January is Amelia Earhart Month.

To honor this great Zontian who set many flying records and championed the advancement of women in aviation, District AE Committee Chair – Ms. Pauline Ng & Vice Chair – Ms. Mita Ruffino invited Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki to speak at the webinar held on Monday 24 January 2022 (5p.m – 7p.m) titled “Diversity in Space Explorations”.  

Naoko is a Japanese engineer and former astronaut at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). She is known as the second Japanese woman to fly in space. She boarded the NASA Space Shuttle, Discovery, on Mission STS-131 which was launched on April 5, 2010 and returned to earth on April 20 , 2010. Since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011, Naoko has been involved  in promoting STEM activities and she co-founded  the Space Port Japan Association in Japan. She is now a member of the Japanese Government Space Policy Committee, an adviser to the Young Astronaut Club and Chairman of the Women in Aerospace Program of the Japan Rocket Society.