page_title: Koichi Wakata
section_title: STS-72
hierarchical_section_title: Koichi Wakata / Spaceflight experience / STS-72
caption_attribution_description: English: JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata giving a thumbs-up as he arrives at Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the STS-92 mission in October 2000, on which he served as a Mission Specialist.
context_page_description: Koichi Wakata is a Japanese engineer and a JAXA astronaut. Wakata is a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions, a Russian Soyuz mission, and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. During a nearly two-decade career in spaceflight, he has logged more than eleven months in space. During Expedition 39, he became the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. Wakata flew on the Soyuz TMA-11M/Expedition 38/Expedition 39 long duration spaceflight from 7 November 2013 to 13 May 2014. During this spaceflight he was accompanied by Kirobo, the first humanoid robot astronaut.
context_section_description: On STS-72, Wakata became the first Japanese Mission Specialist. STS-72 retrieved the Space Flyer Unit (launched from Japan ten months earlier), deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer, and evaluated techniques to be used in the assembly of the International Space Station.
  During STS-72, Wakata and fellow astronaut Dan Barry became the first people to play the game Go in space. Wakata and Barry used a special Go set, which was named Go Space, designed by Wai-Cheung Willson Chow.
caption: Wakata giving a thumbs-up as he arrives at Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the STS-92 mission.
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