List of Asian astronauts

What exactly is meant by "Asian" astronaut depends on the definition used for Asian. If it is used to mean a citizen of a country wholly or partly in Asia, then the very first Asian in space was Yuri Gagarin himself, as the majority of the USSR's landmass (and Gagarins own launch point) was in Asia. Gagarin was from and born in European Russia, so that would make Ghurmann Titov (second man to orbit the Earth and 4th in space overall), the first as he was from and born in the Asian part of Russia. This definition would embrace many Soviet and. Russian cosmonauts, such as Alexi Leonov.

US Astronauts such as Bill Anders (Apollo 8) and Shannon Lucid were also born in Asia, although they are not usually considered Asian astronauts. If "Asian" is restricted to refer to people from the continent of Asia, exclusive of Asian Russia, who are not of predominantly European, African, or American ancestry, then the list is as follows:.

The first country listed is that of citizenship; the second, if any, is that of the Asian country of birth, where different.

The list is divided between those astronauts whose origin or ancestry is in West or South Asia (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, India, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria) and those whose origin or ancestry is in East or Central Asia (China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Vietnam).

West and South Asia

# Image Name
Birth date		 Country Comment Missions (Launch date)
1 Rakesh Sharma
January 13, 1949		  India First Indian in space Soyuz T-11/10 (April 3, 1984)
2 Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
June 27, 1956		  Saudi Arabia First Saudi and first Arab in space. STS-51-G (June 17, 1985)
3 Muhammed Faris
May 26, 1951		  Syria First Syrian in space. Soyuz TM-3/2 (July 22, 1987)
4 Musa Manarov
March 22, 1951		  Soviet Union
( Azerbaijan)		 First Azeri in space. Soyuz TM-4 (December 21, 1987)
Soyuz TM-11 (December 2, 1990)
5 Abdul Ahad Mohmand
January 1, 1959		  Afghanistan First Afghan in space. Soyuz TM-6/5 (August 29, 1988)
6 Kalpana Chawla
March 17, 1962		  United States
( India)		 First Indian-American in space. Died on the Columbia. STS-87 (19 November 1997)
STS-107 (16 January 2003)
7 Fyodor Yurchikhin
January 3, 1959		  Russia
( Georgia)		 First Georgian in space, of Pontic Greek ancestry. Served on the ISS in Expedition 15. STS-112 (October 7, 2002)
Soyuz TMA-10 (April 7, 2007)
8 Ilan Ramon
June 20, 1954		  Israel First Israeli in space. Died on the Columbia. STS-107 (January 16, 2003)
9 Anousheh Ansari
September 12, 1966		  United States
( Iran)		 First Iranian-American in space Soyuz TMA-9/8 (September 18, 2006)

East and Central Asia

# Image Name
Birth date		 Country Comment Missions (Launch date)
1 Phạm Tuân
February 14, 1947		  Vietnam First Vietnamese man in space. Soyuz 37 (July 23, 1980)
2 Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa
December 5, 1947		  Mongolia First Mongolian in space. Soyuz 39 (March 22, 1981)
3 Ellison Onizuka
June 24, 1946		  United States
( Japan)		 First Asian American in space, first person of Japanese ancestry in space STS-51-C (January 27, 1985)
STS-51-L (January 28, 1986)
4 Taylor Gun-jin Wang
June 16, 1940		  United States
( Republic of China)		 First Chinese American in space. STS-51-B (April 29, 1985)
5 Toyohiro Akiyama
July 22, 1942		  Japan First Japanese citizen in space. Soyuz TM-11/10 (December 2, 1990)
6 Toktar Aubakirov
July 27, 1946		  Soviet Union
( Kazakhstan)		 First ethnic Kazakh in space. Soyuz TM-13/12 (October 2, 1991)
7 Eugene Trinh
September 14, 1950		  United States
(South Vietnam South Vietnam)		 STS-50 (June 25, 1992)
8 Mamoru Mohri
January 29, 1948		  Japan STS-47 (September 12, 1992)
STS-99 (February 11, 2000)
9 Talgat Musabayev
January 7, 1951		  Russia
( Kazakhstan)		 Soyuz TM-19 (July 1, 1994)
Soyuz TM-27 (January 29, 1998)
Soyuz TM-32/31 (April 28, 2001)
10 Chiaki Mukai
May 6, 1952		  Japan First Japanese woman in space. STS-65 (July 8, 1994)
STS-95 (October 29, 1998)
11 Koichi Wakata
August 1, 1963		  Japan Served on the ISS in Expedition 18, 19, and 20. STS-72 (July 11, 1996)
STS-92 (October 11, 2000)
STS-119/127 (March 15, 2009)
12 Takao Doi
September 18, 1954		  Japan First Japanese spacewalker STS-87 (November 19, 1997)
STS-123 (March 11, 2008)
13 Salizhan Sharipov
August 24, 1964		  Russia
( Kyrgyzstan)		 Of Uzbek ancestry. Served on ISS Expedition 10 STS-89 (January 22, 1998)
Soyuz TMA-5 (October 14, 2004)
14 Yáng Lìwěi
June 21, 1965		  China First astronaut from the People's Republic of China. Shenzhou 5 (October 15, 2003)
15 Soichi Noguchi
April 15, 1965		  Japan STS-114 (July 26, 2005)
17 Fèi Jùnlóng
May 5, 1965		  China Shenzhou 6 (October 12, 2005)
Niè Hǎishèng
October 13, 1964		  China Shenzhou 6 (October 12, 2005)
18 Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
July 27, 1972		  Malaysia First Malay in space Soyuz TMA-11/10 (October 10, 2007)
19 Yi So-Yeon
June 2, 1978		  Republic of Korea First Korean in space Soyuz TMA-12/11 (April 8, 2008)
20 Akihiko Hoshide
December 28, 1968		  Japan STS-124 (May 31, 2008)
23 Zhái Zhìgāng
October 10, 1966		  China Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008)
Líu Bómíng
October 29, 1966		  China Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008)
Jǐng Hǎipéng
October 24, 1966		  China Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008)
24 Naoko Yamazaki
December 27, 1970		  Japan STS-131 (April 5, 2010)
26 Liu Wang
1970		  China Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012)
Liu Yang
1978		  China Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012)
28 Zhang Xiaoguang
May 1966		  China Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013)
Wang Yaping
January 1980		  China Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013)

Other Asian-born astronauts

Several Soviet and Russian cosmonauts of Russian ethnicity, and some American astronauts not of Asian ancestry, were born in Asian Russia and other parts of Asia:

See also