List of 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 and/or ancestry, 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, 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, first person with Asian ancestry and first non-white person to be 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 Wang June 16, 1940 |
United States ( Republic of China) |
First person of Chinese ancestry 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) |
First Vietnamese American in space. | 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, 20, and (Expedition 38/39) | STS-72 (July 11, 1996) STS-92 (October 11, 2000) STS-119/127 (March 15, 2009) Soyuz TMA-11M (November 7, 2013) | |
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 | Mark L. Polansky June 2, 1956 |
United States ( South Korea) |
First person of Korean ancestry in space. | STS-98 (February 7, 2001) STS-116 (December 9, 2006) STS-127 (July 15, 2009) | |
15 | Yang Liwei June 21, 1965 |
China | First astronaut from the People's Republic of China. | Shenzhou 5 (October 15, 2003) | |
16 | Soichi Noguchi April 15, 1965 |
Japan | Served on the ISS in (Expedition 22/23) | STS-114 (July 26, 2005) Soyuz TMA-17 (December 20, 2009) | |
18 | Fei Junlong May 5, 1965 |
China | Shenzhou 6 (October 12, 2005) | ||
Nie Haisheng October 13, 1964 |
China | Shenzhou 6 (October 12, 2005) Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013) | |||
19 | Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor July 27, 1972 |
Malaysia | First Malaysian in space | Soyuz TMA-11/10 (October 10, 2007) | |
20 | Yi So-yeon June 2, 1978 |
South Korea | First native Korean in space | Soyuz TMA-11/12 (April 8, 2008) | |
21 | Akihiko Hoshide December 28, 1968 |
Japan | Served on the ISS in (Expedition 32/33) | STS-124 (May 31, 2008) Soyuz TMA-05M (15 July 2012) | |
24 | Zhai Zhigang October 10, 1966 |
China | Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008) | ||
Liu Boming (astronaut) October 29, 1966 |
China | Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008) | |||
Jing Haipeng October 24, 1966 |
China | Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008) Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012) Shenzhou 11 (October 17, 2016) | |||
25 | Naoko Yamazaki December 27, 1970 |
Japan | STS-131 (April 5, 2010) | ||
26 | Satoshi Furukawa April 4, 1964 |
Japan | Served on the ISS in (Expedition 28/29) | Soyuz TMA-02M (7 June 2011) | |
27 | Liu Wang 1970 |
China | Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012) | ||
Liu Yang (astronaut) 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) | |||
29 | Kimiya Yui January 30, 1970 |
Japan | Served on the ISS in (Expedition 44/45) | Soyuz TMA-17M (July 22, 2015) | |
30 | Aidyn Aimbetov July 27, 1972 |
Kazakhstan | Soyuz TMA-18M (September 2, 2015) | ||
31 | Takuya Onishi (December 22, 1975) |
Japan | Served on the ISS in (Expedition 48/49) | Soyuz MS-01 (July 7, 2016) | |
32 | Chen Dong December 12, 1978 |
China | Shenzhou 11 (October 17, 2016) | ||
33 | Norishige Kanai December 1976 |
Japan | Will Serve on the ISS on (Expedition 54/55) | Soyuz MS-07 (December 27, 2017) |
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:
- Born in Asian Russia — Dmitri Kondratyev, Vasili Lazarev, Aleksei Leonov, Aleksandr Poleshchuk, Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Valery Ryumin, Vitali Sevastyanov, Maksim Surayev, Gherman Titov, Vladimir Titov, Pavel Vinogradov, Boris Volynov.
- Born in Kazakhstan — Yuri Lonchakov, Viktor Patsayev, Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksandr Viktorenko
- Born in Turkmenistan — Oleg Kononenko
- Born in Uzbekistan — Vladimir Dzhanibekov
- Born in China — William Anders, Shannon Lucid
- Born in Taiwan - Kjell N. Lindgren