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Soichi Noguchi, 55, an astronaut from the Japanese space agency JAXA, makes a third space journey. He was a crew member of the space shuttle Discovery in 2005 at the first space shuttle launch after the loss of Colombia and its seven astronauts more than two years ago.
During this visit to the International Space Station, Mr. Noguchi took three spacewalks. This included one to test techniques developed to repair damage to thermal tiles on shuttles similar to those that doomed Colombia when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. In 2009 and 2010, he spent five months in orbit as a crew member for the space station.
Victor Glover, 44, whom NASA selected as an astronaut in 2013, is completing its first space flight. He will be the first black NASA astronaut to serve aboard the space station crew. Glover’s success is remarkable for NASA, which has focused on emphasizing the “hidden figure”. In its history, it has so far sent only 14 black Americans out of a total of more than 300 NASA astronauts into space.
He won’t be the first black astronaut aboard the station. But those who transferred him from NASA were members of the shuttle crews during the construction of the station and only completed short stays at the base.
Allyson Waller contributed to the report.
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