page_title: Soichi Noguchi
section_title: Expedition 22/23
hierarchical_section_title: Soichi Noguchi / Astronaut career / Expedition 22/23
caption_attribution_description: English: The Soyuz TMA-17 rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Dec. 21, 2009, carrying Expedition 22 NASA Flight Engineer Timothy J. Creamer of the United States, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov of Russia, and Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi of Japan to the International Space Station.
context_page_description: 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 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster. He was most recently in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station, returning to Earth on 2 June 2010. He is the fifth Japanese astronaut to fly in space and the fourth to fly on the space shuttle.
context_section_description: Following STS-114, Noguchi was assigned as a back up ISS Flight Engineer for JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, who became the first Japansese astronaut to live long duration aboard the space station. Following his assignment as a back up for Wakata, JAXA assigned Noguchi to the crew of ISS Expedition 22/23 alongside Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer.
  Noguchi and his two crew mates launched on 21 December 2009 aboard Soyuz TMA-17, he became the first JAXA astronaut and second Japanses citizen (following Tokyo Broadcasting System reporter Toyohiro Akiyama) to fly on a Soyuz spacecraft, the trio spent two days in free flight, before docking to the ISS and joining the Expedition 22 crew, joining American Commander Jeff Williams and Russian flight engineer Maksim Surayev.
  During Expedition 22, the crew were visited by Space Shuttle Endeavour during its penultimate flight, STS-130, which delivered the Node 3 module and the Cupola to the station, during this flight Noguchi was also in space with his former STS-114 crew mate Stephen Robinson, who was Mission Specialist on STS-130. Soyuz TMA-16 returned to Earth on 18 March 2010, carrying Surayev and Williams back to Earth and officially ending Expedition 23, following which Noguchi Kotov and Creamer transferred to Expedition 23, with Kotov taking command of the station. Shortly after they were joined by Soyuz TMA-18, carrying Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko as well as American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson.
  Expedition 23 was visited by two space shuttle missions, STS-131 and STS-132. STS-131 delivered new supplies to the ISS aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, the flight also carried JAXA mission specialist Naoko Yamazaki, who joined Noguchi on the station for a short while, marking the first time two Japanese citizens were in space at the same time. Space Shuttle Atlantis launched to the station carrying the Russian Rassvet module to the station towards the end of Expedition 23.
  Noguchi, joined by Kotov and Creamer undocked from the station and returned to Earth on 1 June 2010, the trio touched down in Kazakhstan following 163 days in space, bringing up Noguchi's total time in space to 177 days.
caption: Soyuz TMA-17 launches to the ISS carrying Noguchi, Kotov and Creamer.
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