Astro Soichi and the attack of the space sushi!

While some of us earthlings fumble about the inn or suffer at the hands of the oppressor in some forgotten, God-forsaken "gulag," (Not, The Gulag, it is hoped) I'm orbiting the globe finding myself not only in "mixed company," but with some of my favorite food, too (Hint: not bran muffins).

As time seems to get lost in space (the same in spirit world as we know from our Swedenborg (pg. 16) and possibly certain non-gastronomical experience), I thought I'd try and get a handle on Astro_Soichi and the sheer *impact* he seems to have had on all of Earth.

December 2009

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi begins his trek aboard the International Space Station. Representing the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, he is one of five astronauts from three countries who comprise Expedition 22 and staff the Japanese-built Kibo orbiting laboratory. Two Russians and two Americans round out the rest of the crew.

January 2010

NASA outfits the space station with live internet. Soichi Noguchi starts a live Twitter feed under the name Astro_Soichi.

February 26, 2010

Noguchi makes sushi in space while floating weightless aboard the space station. He wears a chef's hat in the live-feed interview and demonstration with Fuji TV reporters.


No mention was made of any wasabi accompanying Noguchi's space sushi.

History however notes that one astronaut, the remarkable American Sunita Williams (who has her own gallery of earth from space photos here) of NASA, took a tube of the spicy green condiment to the space station in 2007. It got loose and stuck to the walls and henceforth was eventually banished to a cargo ship to "avoid future spills," as Williams relayed it in a televised interview at the time.

For what else should the mission of Expedition 22 be remembered and noted in the annals of weightless timelessness?

backtrack a bit to . . .

February 17, 2010

Completion of the Cupola observation deck, the space station's seven-window observation deck that even Leonardo (Da Vinci) would be proud of. The huge, 31-inch (80-cm) window looking down on the Earth, is billed as the world's largest space window ever built. Noguchi is the first astronaut to send a photo of earth from it.

Here it is:

Credit: Twitter via NASA

Noguchi took this view from inside the cupola just after its windows were first opened. The cupola's window shutters are open and the Sahara desert is visible below.

Astro Soichi's reputation as Twitter space shutterbug may seal his place in Japanese and world history. As for sushi chef extraordinaire? Homeland security, time (and/or timelessness) will tell.

June 2, 2010

Astronaut Noguchi Soichi returns to earth after just over five months as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. That is the longest time any Japanese astronaut has yet spent in space.

As the National Geographic Society blog notes:

"Barring only the Hubble Space Telescope, Noguchi may go down in history as the most beloved orbiting space photographer."

One must wonder about that.

Belovedness, after all, may simply trump everything in the end.

As posted by Astro_Soichi 59 days ago:

One more look at our beautiful Mt. Fuji, Japan. on Twitpic

Astro_Soichi's full, amazing collection of Youtube Videos can be found here.

His Twitpics can be found here.

Be sure to keep following me on Twitter here; otherwise, I'll surely become twitterpated and that can't be all that good for Earth (or me).

Oh, and be sure read this on the importance of not being a litter bug.
Huge hunks of metal trump sushi.
And Chicken Little may not have been so wrong after all?