List of Asian astronauts

This is a list of astronauts, who are in a restricted sense, Asians.

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 (Mongolia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, China, Vietnam).

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 the second non-white person to be in space, after Andriyan Nikolayev, an ethnic chuvash. Soyuz 37 (July 23, 1980)
2 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)
3 Taylor Wang
June 16, 1940
 United States
( Republic of China)
First person of Chinese ancestry in space. STS-51-B (April 29, 1985)
4 Toyohiro Akiyama
July 22, 1942
 Japan First Japanese citizen in space. Soyuz TM-11/10 (December 2, 1990)
5 Toktar Aubakirov
July 27, 1946
 Soviet Union
( Kazakhstan)
First ethnic Kazakh in space. Soyuz TM-13/12 (October 2, 1991)
6 Eugene Trinh
September 14, 1950
 United States
( South Vietnam)
First Vietnamese American in space. STS-50 (June 25, 1992)
7 Mamoru Mohri
January 29, 1948
 Japan STS-47 (September 12, 1992)
STS-99 (February 11, 2000)
8 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)
9 Chiaki Mukai
May 6, 1952
 Japan First Japanese woman in space. STS-65 (July 8, 1994)
STS-95 (October 29, 1998)
10 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)
11 Takao Doi
September 18, 1954
 Japan First Japanese spacewalker. STS-87 (November 19, 1997)
STS-123 (March 11, 2008)
12 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)
13 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)
14 Yang Liwei
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 Served on the ISS in (Expedition 22/23) and (Expedition 64/65). STS-114 (July 26, 2005)
Soyuz TMA-17 (December 20, 2009)
SpaceX Crew-1 (November 16, 2020)
16 & 17 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)
18 Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
July 27, 1972
 Malaysia First Malaysian in space. Soyuz TMA-11/10 (October 10, 2007)
19 Yi So-yeon
June 2, 1978
 South Korea First native Korean in space. Soyuz TMA-11/12 (April 8, 2008)
20 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)
21, 22, & 23 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)
24 Naoko Yamazaki
December 27, 1970
 Japan STS-131 (April 5, 2010)
25 Satoshi Furukawa
April 4, 1964
 Japan Served on the ISS in (Expedition 28/29). Soyuz TMA-02M (7 June 2011)
26 & 27 Liu Wang
1970
 China Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012)
Liu Yang
1978
 China First Chinese woman in space. Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012)
28 & 29 Zhang Xiaoguang
May 1966
 China Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013)
Wang Yaping
January 1980
 China Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013)
30 Kimiya Yui
January 30, 1970
 Japan Served on the ISS in (Expedition 44/45). Soyuz TMA-17M (July 22, 2015)
31 Aidyn Aimbetov
July 27, 1972
 Kazakhstan Soyuz TMA-18M (September 2, 2015)
32 Takuya Onishi
December 22, 1975
 Japan Served on the ISS in (Expedition 48/49). Soyuz MS-01 (July 7, 2016)
33 Chen Dong
December 12, 1978
 China Shenzhou 11 (October 17, 2016)
34 Norishige Kanai
December 5, 1976
 Japan Served on the ISS on (Expedition 54/55). Soyuz MS-07 (December 27, 2017)

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)
10 Hazza Al Mansouri
December 13, 1983
 United Arab Emirates First United Arab Emirates in space. Soyuz MS-15/12 (September 25, 2019)

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

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