is a Japanese doctor and

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

astronaut. He is a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

and Diving Medical Officer in the

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJ ...

(Medical Service Division, 1st Service School). He served as a crew member on board the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

for

Expedition 54 Expedition 54 was the 54th expedition to the International Space Station, which began upon the departure of Soyuz MS-05 on December 14, 2017 and concluded upon the departure of Soyuz MS-06 on February 27, 2018. Alexander Misurkin, Mark Vande Hei ...

/ 55, and returned to Earth on June 3, 2018.

Personal life

Kanai graduated from Toho High School, Chiba, Japan, in 1995. He received an M.D. degree from National Defense Medical College in 2002. He enjoys

Iaidō , abbreviated , is a Japanese martial art that emphasizes being aware and capable of quickly drawing the sword and responding to sudden attacks.Christensen, Karen and Allen Guttmann et.al (2001) ''International Encyclopedia of Women and Spor ...

and other Japanese traditional martial arts,

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

, and traveling. He is a member of the Japan Surgical Society and the Japanese Society of

Hyperbaric Hyperbaric medicine is medical treatment in which an ambient pressure greater than sea level atmospheric pressure is a necessary component. The treatment comprises hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), the medical use of oxygen at an ambient pressure ...

and Undersea Medicine.

Career

Kanai was commissioned from the National Defense Medical College in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he worked in the Department of Surgery at the National Defense Medical College Hospital. In 2004, he was assigned to Japan Self Defense Force Ohminato Hospital,

Aomori is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 278,964 in 136,457 households, and a population density of 340 people per square kilometer spread over the city's total are ...

, Japan. He completed the Diving Medicine Course and qualified as a Diving Medical Officer in 2004. He also completed the U.S. Navy Diving Medical Officer’s Course as an international military student at the Naval Diving & Salvage Training Center, Florida, and qualified as a

Navy diver A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

in 2006. From 2006 to 2008, he worked in the Department of Surgery at the National Defense Medical College Hospital. He was transferred to Japan Self Defense Force Hospital Kure,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

, Japan, in 2008. Kanai worked at the JMSDF 1st Service School from June to September 2009.

JAXA career

After his selection as an astronaut candidate by JAXA in September 2009, Kanai arrived at

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late ...

later that month for NASA

astronaut training Astronaut training describes the complex process of preparing astronauts in regions around the world for their space missions before, during and after the flight, which includes medical tests, physical training, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) trai ...

. As one of the fourteen members of the 20th NASA astronaut class, he participated in Astronaut Candidate Training which includes scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in ISS systems,

Extravehicular Activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...

(EVA), robotics, physiological training,

T-38 Talon The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first, and the most produced, supersonic trainer. The T-38 remains in service in several air forces. The United States Air Force (USAF) operates the most ...

flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. Kanai was certified as an ISS astronaut in July 2011. In 2011, Kanai served as cavenaut into the

ESA CAVES CAVES, an acronym for Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, is a European Space Agency astronaut training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment. Desi ...

training in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

, alongside

Thomas Pesquet Thomas Gautier Pesquet (; born 27 February 1978 in Rouen) is a French aerospace engineer, pilot, and European Space Agency astronaut. Pesquet was selected by ESA as a candidate in May 2009, and he successfully completed his basic training in Nov ...

Tim Peake Major Timothy Nigel Peake (born 7 April 1972) is a British Army Air Corps officer, European Space Agency astronaut and a former International Space Station (ISS) crew member. He is the first British ESA astronaut, the second astronaut to b ...

, Sergey Ryzhikov and

Randolph Bresnik Randolph James "Komrade" Bresnik (born September 11, 1967) is a retired officer in the United States Marine Corps and an active NASA astronaut. A Marine Aviator by trade, Bresnik was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 19 in May 2004. ...

. In July 2015, he participated as an

aquanaut An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satura ...

in the NEEMO 20 crew.

Expedition 54/55

In August 2015 JAXA announced his selection to the crew of

/ 55 to the

, scheduled for launch in December 2017. Kanai was launched on into space onboard

Soyuz MS-07 Soyuz MS-07 was a Soyuz spaceflight launched on 17 December 2017 at 07:21 UTC. It transported three members of the Expedition 54 crew to the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-07 was the 136th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consiste ...

on December 17, 2017 07:21 UTC. In January 2018 Kanai received publicity after mistakenly tweeting that he had grown "as much as 9 cm" taller due to the absence of gravity. Microgravity allows the vertebrae in astronauts' spines to spread apart; typical growth for astronauts in zero-gravity is two to five centimeters. A 9 cm growth spurt might hypothetically create problems, as the Soyuz spacecraft to take astronauts back to Earth has a limit on seating height. However, later Kanai remeasured and tweeted that he had apparently grown only 2 cm, saying "it was a measurement mistake (?)" .

References

External links

Astronaut Bio: Norishige Kanai (09/2009)

Astronaut Kanai assigned to long-stay mission in ISS
''August 27th 2015'',

Jiji Press is a news agency in Japan. History Jiji was formed in November 1945 following the breakup of Domei Tsushin, the government-controlled news service responsible for disseminating information prior to and during World War II. Jiji inherited Do ...

/ ''The Yomiuri Shimbun'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanai, Norishige Aquanauts Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel Japanese astronauts Japanese military doctors People from Chiba Prefecture 1976 births Living people National Defense Medical College alumni Spacewalkers