In December 1990, journalist Toyohiro Akiyama made headlines the world over when he blasted off aboard a Soviet rocket to become the very first "space correspondent" in history.
The Soyuz capsule with the 47-year-old Tokyo Broadcasting System reporter strapped inside later docked with the Mir space station as part of an unprecedented $10 million (¥1.5 billion) deal between the USSR's cash-starved space agency and the ratings-hungry private TV network.
Akiyama then spent nine days in space, broadcasting live his zero-gravity experiences and describing experiments he was conducting.