Astronaut Soichi Noguchi To retire from JAXA The number of days spent in space is over 344 days.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi will retire from JAXA = Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on June 1st.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi (57) is from Kanagawa prefecture and was selected by an employee of a private company in the astronaut selection test conducted by the then NASDA = National Space Development Agency of Japan in 1996.

In 2005, he made his first space flight on the American Space Shuttle, and in 2009 he took a Russian Soyuz and stayed at the International Space Station for a long period of five and a half months. I boarded the first Crew Dragon and made a third space flight.

His total number of days in space is more than 344 days, which is the second record for a Japanese person in history.

And it was announced that he was appointed as a specially appointed professor at the University of Tokyo last December.

When Mr. Noguchi retires, there will be six active astronauts belonging to JAXA.

Mr. Noguchi is planning to hold a press conference on May 25th.