The JEM-EUSO Mission

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) for full-sky high energy astroparticle physics above 3x$10^{19}$ eV is planned for the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) on the International Space Station. This extreme energy cosmic ray detector will look down on the earth's atmosphere from space to achieve an aperture at $10^{20}$ eV that exceeds the largest ground based detector by more than an order of magnitude. This pioneering instrument will also be sensitive to atmospheric optical transients, for example meteorites and ``Elves.'' The planned scientific program, the instrument, including a Global Light System for ground based calibration and the R\&D effort will be presented. The latter includes a prototype to be tested on the ground at the Telescope Array Project in 2013 and at stratospheric altitudes in a balloon launch planned for 2014 from Timmins Canada.