Koichi Wakata

Koichi Wakata is a Japanese engineer and an astronaut working for Axiom Space. He retired from JAXA in 2024. Wakata is a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions, a Russian Soyuz mission, and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. During a nearly two-decade career in spaceflight, he has logged more than five hundred days in space. During Expedition 39, he became the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. Wakata flew on the Soyuz TMA-11M/Expedition 38/Expedition 39 long duration spaceflight from 7 November 2013 to 13 May 2014. During this spaceflight he was accompanied by Kirobo, the first humanoid robot astronaut. As of 2023, he is the longest active astronaut in the world.

1 August 1963

Born on the same birth date (1 August 1963): Coolio • Dean Wareham • Demián Bichir • John Carroll Lynch

Born on the same birth day (1 August): Anton Strålman • Brandt Jobe • Cher Calvin • Chuck D • Gregg Berhalter • Jacques François Dugommier • Jean-Baptiste Lamarck • John Lester • Nathan Fien • Richard Wilson (painter) • Stuart Holden • Taylor Negron

Born in the same month (August 1963): Charles Ingram • Dave Brockie • Dean Wareham • Hur Jin-ho • James DeBarge • Jon Gruden • Kevin Mitnick • Phil Mills • Tasmin Archer