Koichi WAKATA

Dr. Koichi Wakata received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Kyushu University. Selected as an astronaut candidate in 1992, from 1992 to 2016 he worked at NASA Astronaut Office and served in duties including Chief of Space Station Operations Branch, instructor astronaut for robotics, EVA and CapCom. He served as Chief of JAXA Astronaut Group from 2010 to 2012, JAXA ISS Program Manager from 2016 to 2018, and is currently serving as JAXA Vice President for Human Spaceflight and Exploration. He flew in space four times on Space Shuttle (STS-72, STS-92, STS-119, and STS-127), ISS (Expedition 18/19/20 and Expedition 38/39), and Soyuz (TMA-14 and TMA-11M). He became the first Japanese ISS Commander in 2014 and has accumulated a total of 347 days in space.

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