PROFILE

Dr. Soichi Noguchi graduated from the Graduate School of University of Tokyo in 1991, and worked in R&D group of IHI Co, ltd. He was selected as astronaut candidate in 1996, and started training at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. His first spaceflight was STS-114 mission by the space shuttle Discovery in 2005. He conducted three Extravehicular Activities (EVA) as a lead spacewalker (EV1) and became the first Japanese astronaut to perform EVAs on the ISS. In 2009, he became the first Japanese left-seater for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft TMA-17. He was assigned as the Chief of JAXA Astronaut Group from August 2012 to April 2016.In September 2014, he was elected the president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE). In 2016, he became Assistant professor of the
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo. In 2019, he was named as the Member of Space Advisory Council, Saudi Space Commission (SSC). In 2020, he became the first non-American to board SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft (Crew-1). He was the first astronaut in the world to accomplish three different methods of Earth entry (runway, ground, and ocean), and officially certified by Guinness World Records. Total number of EVA (4) and EVA hours (27) are both the most by any Japanese astronauts. (as of 2021/07)