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 started training at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in 1996. His first spaceflight was STS-114 on the space shuttle Discovery in 2005. He conducted three spacewalks (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 flight engineer for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft TMA-17. He was assigned as the Chief of JAXA Astronaut Group from August 2012 to April 2016. In 2014, he was elected the president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE). 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. Received YouTube Creator Award with live performance of Chopin from Space. Total number of EVA (4) and Total Stay on ISS (335 days) are both the most by any Japanese astronauts.
From July 2022, appointed to the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Social and Economic Research and the Advisory Board Members of e-woman, Inc.