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Astronaut Noguchi Cosplays as Yamato Hero in Space (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: On Saturday, the Japanese space agency Space Battleship Yamato. (Susumu Kodai was known as Derek Wildstar in the American adaptation Star Blazers.) Noguchi has been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since last December, and the photograph was taken on Thursday.
A day earlier, fellow Japanese astronaut STS-131. The photograph below shows Noguchi (left), Yamazaki (right), and another fellow Discovery astronaut, Stephanie D. Wilson (center), within the station's Destiny module.
According to JAXA, both Noguchi and Yamazaki were fans of Yamato as children, and the space opera anime inspired both to become astronauts. Yamazaki was also a fan of the Leiji Matsumoto conceived. Matsumoto now chairs the Young Astronauts Club (YAC) of Japan, and Yamazaki serves as a vice-chairperson.
During a YAC ceremony last December, Matsumoto presented Yamazaki with a wristwatch that he designed himself. The wristwatch is date-stamped "1999" and has the serial number "1999" — to commemorate the year that Yamazaki became an astronaut candidate. Yamazaki even made a special guest appearance in an episode of Housuke Nojiri's science-fiction novel about a Japanese girl who becomes an astronaut.
On Thursday, Yamazaki and the rest of the Discovery crew My Neighbor Totoro film, as sung by Noguchi's daughters and the other students at the Houston Japanese Language School.
Daisuke "unable to fly to the station due to a physical exam.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun
Image © Voyager Entertainment
International Space Station photograph courtesy of JAXA
Update: NASA posted a January 26 video in which Noguchi wore his Yamato-inspired shirt.
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