It's not the remaining time on the Passport that is the only issue, it is that it cannot be a Passport more than 10 years old including that 6 months. In theory it is possible to have a 10 year old passport with 9 months left, and be refused entry.
Yes, but status ??? Ah. we've just heard on the Japanese space agency's live feed that they're planning to give an update on the mission in about 10 minutes - that's 02:10 local time (17:10 GMT).