Koichi Wakata

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Koichi Wakata

JAXA Astronaut
Nationality	Japanese
Born	August 1, 1963 Omiya, Saitama
Other occupation	Pilot
Space time	21d 19h 44m
Selection	1992 NASA Group
Missions	STS-72, STS-92
Mission insignia

Koichi Wakata (若田光一 Wakata Kōichi, born 1 August 1963) is a Japanese astronaut from JAXA and a veteran of two NASA space shuttle missions.

Wakata, born in Omiya, Saitama, earned a masters degree in applied mathematics from Kyushu University in 1989. He worked as a structural engineer for Japan Airlines. Wakata was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1992 and trained at NASA's Johnson Space Center; he flew aboard STS-72 in 1996 and STS-92 in 2000 as a mission specialist. On the 1996 mission, he and fellow astronaut Dan Barry became the first people to play Go in space. Wakata and Barry used a special Go set, which was named Go Space, designed by Wai-Cheung Willson Chow.

Wakata is currently training for his third flight, a long duration mission to the International Space Station. He will launch in October 2008 as a Mission Specialist on the STS-119 mission.^[1] He will serve as Flight Engineer 2 on Expedition 18 before returning home as a Mission Specialist on STS-127.