Spaceflight
Akiyama was selected for cosmonaut training in August 1989 in a deal between TBS and the Soviet Union. Akiyama's flight became the first commercially organized spaceflight in history.
After successfully completing a Research Cosmonaut training course at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in present-day Russia, Akiyama launched aboard the Soyuz TM-11 mission to the Mir space station on December 2, 1990 along with mission commander Viktor Afanasyev and flight engineer Musa Manarov. During his time aboard Mir, Akiyama gave live reports each day documenting life aboard the station. He returned just over a week later aboard Soyuz TM-10 along with Gennadi Manakov and Gennady Strekalov on December 10. Akiyama's mission marked the first flight of a person of Japanese descent in space as well as the first commercially sponsored and funded spaceflight of an individual in history.
Read more about this topic: Toyohiro Akiyama