Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki has been chosen as a crew member of a February 2010 Space Shuttle Atlantis mission, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Nov. 11.

Yamazaki, 37, the eighth Japanese to travel to space, has a 6-year-old daughter, making her the first Japanese mother to fly into the space.

Atlantis is set to be launched Feb. 11, 2010 at the earliest, the agency, known as JAXA, said, adding its mission is to transport multipurpose facilities to the International Space Station.

Yamazaki was born in 1970 in Chiba Prefecture. Upon receiving a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1996, she joined JAXA's predecessor, the National Space Development Agency of Japan.