Takao Doi

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Takao Doi

NASDA/JAXA Astronaut
Nationality	Japanese
Status	Active
Born	September 18, 1954 (1954-09-18) (age 53) Tokyo, Japan
Other occupation	Engineer
Space time	31d 19h 35m
Selection	1985 NASDA Group
Missions	STS-87, STS-123
Mission insignia

Takao Doi (土井隆雄 Doi Takao, born September 18, 1954) is a Japanese astronaut and a veteran of two NASA space shuttle missions.

Doi holds a doctorate from the University of Tokyo in aerospace engineering, and has studied and published in the fields of propulsion systems, and microgravity technology. He researched at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and was selected by NASDA as an astronaut candidate in 1985 for the Japanese manned space program while also conducting research in the United States at NASA's Lewis Research Center and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Doi flew as a mission specialist aboard STS-87 in 1997, during which he became the first Japanese astronaut to conduct a spacewalk.

He received Ph. D in Astronomy from Rice University in 2004.

Takao Doi visited the International Space Station in March 2008 as a member of the STS-123 crew. STS-123 delivered the first module of the Japanese laboratory, Kibō, and the Canadian Dextre robot to the space station.

As an avid amateur astronomer, he found supernovae SN 2002gw and SN 2007aa.^[1]^[2]