Toyohiro Akiyama, Japan’s first person in space and a chain-smoking TV reporter, died on Aug. 26 at his home in Odai, Japan, at age 84 from lower gastrointestinal bleeding. In 1990, during the Cold War’s end, TBS sent him to the Mir space station in a $35 million ratings stunt, making him the first journalist in space. Despite nausea, vomiting, and cravings for cigarettes and natto, his plain-spoken broadcasts from orbit — including his first words, “Is this live?” — defied hero expectations.

Though the mission failed as a ratings hit, it inspired Japan’s first professional astronauts. After vowing never to return, he turned to organic farming, saying Earth’s beauty from space gave him a ‘message from nature.’ Born in Tokyo in 1942, Akiyama overcame a difficult upbringing, graduated from International Christian University, and rose at TBS, interviewing Reagan in 1985 before his historic flight. His wife, Reiko, confirmed the cause of death.