Soichi Noguchi Information

Astronaut
JAXA
Japan

Biography:
Soichi Noguchi was born in 1965, in Yokohama, Kanagawa. He received a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1991. He was selected to be an astronaut candidate by NASDA, currently the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in May 1996. In April 2001, he was assigned as a crew member for the STS-114 (LF1) mission by the space shuttle Discovery. This was the Return to Flight mission during which the space shuttle docked with the International Space Station (ISS) and new procedures for flight safety, space shuttle's orbiter inspection and repair techniques were tested and evaluated. In May 2008, he was assigned as an ISS Expedition 20 crew member. In December 2009, he was launched to the ISS aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 (21S) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He spent 161 days aboard the ISS as a Flight Engineer for the Expedition 22/23 Mission, and returned to Earth in June 2010.

In September 2014, he was elected president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE). He has logged a total of 177 days 3 hours 5 minutes in space including the STS-114 and ISS Expedition 22/23 missions.