Soichi Noguchi

Soichi Noguchi

Soichi Noguchi is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005. He was also in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station. He is married and has three children.

About Soichi Noguchi in brief

Summary Soichi NoguchiSoichi Noguchi is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA’s first \”return to flight\” Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster. He was also in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station. His third flight is on board the Dragon 2 capsule for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission which launched successfully on 15 November 2020. This makes him one of only three astronauts to fly on three different launch systems and one of three to fly an orbital mission on three separate launch systems. He considers Chigasaki, Japan, to be his hometown. He is married and has three children. His hobbies include jogging, basketball, skiing and camping. He holds flight instructor certificate as CFII and MEI. Noguchis was a Boy Scout. He studied at the University of Tokyo, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1989 and a master’s degree in 1991, both in Aeronautical Engineering.

He qualified as a mission specialist after two years, and received training on Russian space systems at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1998. In April 2001, he reported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center for NASA astronaut training. He trained for this flight until February 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up while returning to Earth, killing the seven astronauts on board; following this all shuttle flights were delayed. In August 2005, he was assigned to the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery, which at that point the flight was targeting launch to the ISS in 2003 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. He and his crew mates returned to Earth on 9 August 2005 carrying over 7,055 pounds of equipment and trash from the station.