Koichi Wakata is a Japanese engineer and an astronaut working for Axiom Space. He retired from JAXA in 2024. 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 five hundred days 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. As of 2023, he is the longest active astronaut in the world.
Wakata in 2022
Wakata giving a thumbs-up as he arrives at Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the STS-92 mission
Wakata demonstrating medical ultrasound equipment during Expedition 38
Axiom Space, Inc., also known as Axiom Space, is an American privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Michael Suffredini in 2012
Artist's rendering of Axiom modules connected to ISS
The Future Axiom Earth Observatory interior (Artist's illustration of the model designed by Philippe Starck)
Crystals grown in microgravity