Soichi Noguchi, an astronaut from Toshio Nagashima's research laboratory at the University of Tokyo, was aboard the manned Soyuz spacecraft launched December 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz carried a banner for the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences as part of the Official Flight Kit.The banner showed the logos of the school's three research divisions of Transdisciplinary Sciences, Biosciences, and Environmental Studies and the logo of its research department of Computational Biology.
The banner will be with Noguchi on his long-term, six-month stay at the International Space Station and then will be returned from NASA to the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.
The banner expresses the dreams of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences
and is a tribute to its 10th anniversary last year.
(A1 size, satin cloth)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
Noguchi Soichi: A Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut who will stay long-term at the International Space Station
http://iss.jaxa.jp/iss/jaxa_exp/noguchi/
- Official Flight Kit = OFK
- The banner, medals, and so on of an astronaut's alma mater and the academic associations he or she belongs to are carried on board the space shuttle as memorabilia.
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