February 9, 2024
JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) Director Hitoshi Kuninaka has been awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
AIAA is the world’s largest aerospace engineering society, and selects individuals who have made long-term contributions to the development of aerospace and have made outstanding achievements as Honorary Fellows.
Director Kuninaka’s comments are as follows.
AIAA Honorary Fellows is the highest AIAA title, first awarded to Orville Wright, the younger brother of the Wright brothers, in 1932, and since then, 238 people have been awarded the title by 2023.
Looking at the list of Honorary Fellows,
Joseph S. Ames (1934)、Neil A. Armstrong (1971)、Richard H. Battin (1990)、Donald W. Douglas (1936)、Charles Draper (1958)、Hugh L. Dryden (1939)、Leroy Grumman (1951) )、George W. Lewis (1940)、Glenn L. Martin (1937)、James McDonnell (1968)、John K. Northrop (1969)、Ludwig Prandtl (1933)、Wernher von Braun (1970)、Theodore von Kármán (1936) )
Note: Numbers in parentheses are year of award.
The list includes names of NASA field centers, aerospace companies, and legends of fluid mechanics and space engineering who are familiar from textbooks. Ichiro Tani is the only Japanese person to receive this award.
「For development of electric propulsion to acquire the first material from an asteroid and work on high voltage systems in space」
I feel deeply honored and humbled to be receiving this award. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the many friends and people involved who have supported me thus far.
In order to live up to this title, I would like to devote myself to promoting aerospace and space science.
JAXA Space Science Director
National average
