List of Asian astronauts

What exactly is meant by "Asian" astronaut depends on the definition used for Asian. If it is used to mean a citizen of a country wholly or partly in Asia, then the very first Asian in space was Yuri Gagarin himself, as the majority of the USSR's landmass (and Gagarins own launch point) was in Asia. Gagarin was from and born in European Russia, so that would make Ghurmann Titov (second man to orbit the Earth and 4th in space overall), the first as he was from and born in the Asian part of Russia. This definition would embrace many Soviet and. Russian cosmonauts, such as Alexi Leonov.

US Astronauts such as Bill Anders (Apollo 8) and Shannon Lucid were also born in Asia, although they are not usually considered Asian astronauts. If "Asian" is restricted to refer to people from the continent of Asia, exclusive of Asian Russia, who are not of predominantly European, African, or American ancestry, then the list is as follows:.

The first country listed is that of citizenship; the second, if any, is that of the Asian country of birth, where different.

The list is divided between those astronauts whose origin or ancestry is in West or South Asia (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, India, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria) and those whose origin or ancestry is in East or Central Asia (China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Vietnam).

West and South Asia

#	Image	Name Birth date	Country	Comment	Missions (Launch date)
1		Rakesh Sharma January 13, 1949	India	First Indian in space	Soyuz T-11/10 (April 3, 1984)
2	80px	Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud June 27, 1956	Saudi Arabia	First Saudi and first Arab in space.	STS-51-G (June 17, 1985)
3		Muhammed Faris May 26, 1951	Syria	First Syrian in space.	Soyuz TM-3/2 (July 22, 1987)
4		Musa Manarov March 22, 1951	Soviet Union (Azerbaijan)	First Azeri in space.	Soyuz TM-4 (December 21, 1987) Soyuz TM-11 (December 2, 1990)
5		Abdul Ahad Mohmand January 1, 1959	Afghanistan	First Afghan in space.	Soyuz TM-6/5 (August 29, 1988)
6		Kalpana Chawla March 17, 1962	United States (India)	First Indian-American in space. Died on the Columbia.	STS-87 (19 November 1997) STS-107 (16 January 2003)
7		Fyodor Yurchikhin January 3, 1959	Russia (Georgia)	First Georgian in space, of Pontic Greek ancestry. Served on the ISS in Expedition 15.	STS-112 (October 7, 2002) Soyuz TMA-10 (April 7, 2007)
8		Ilan Ramon June 20, 1954	Israel	First Israeli in space. Died on the Columbia.	STS-107 (January 16, 2003)
9		Anousheh Ansari September 12, 1966	United States (Iran)	First Iranian-American in space	Soyuz TMA-9/8 (September 18, 2006)

East and Central Asia

#	Image	Name Birth date	Country	Comment	Missions (Launch date)
1		Phạm Tuân February 14, 1947	Vietnam	First Vietnamese man in space.	Soyuz 37 (July 23, 1980)
2		Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa December 5, 1947	Mongolia	First Mongolian in space.	Soyuz 39 (March 22, 1981)
3		Ellison Onizuka June 24, 1946	United States (Japan)	First Asian American in space, first person of Japanese ancestry in space	STS-51-C (January 27, 1985) STS-51-L (January 28, 1986)
4	80px	Taylor Gun-jin Wang June 16, 1940	United States (Republic of China)	First Chinese American in space.	STS-51-B (April 29, 1985)
5		Akiyama Toyohiro July 22, 1942	Japan	First Japanese citizen in space.	Soyuz TM-11/10 (December 2, 1990)
6		Toktar Aubakirov July 27, 1946	Soviet Union (Kazakhstan)	First ethnic Kazakh in space.	Soyuz TM-13/12 (October 2, 1991)
7		Eugene Trinh September 14, 1950	United States (South Vietnam)	First Vietnamese American in space.	STS-50 (June 25, 1992)
8	80px	Mōri Mamoru January 29, 1948	Japan		STS-47 (September 12, 1992) STS-99 (February 11, 2000)
9		Talgat Musabayev January 7, 1951	Russia (Kazakhstan)		Soyuz TM-19 (July 1, 1994) Soyuz TM-27 (January 29, 1998) Soyuz TM-32/31 (April 28, 2001)
10		Mukai Chiaki May 6, 1952	Japan	First Japanese woman in space.	STS-65 (July 8, 1994) STS-95 (October 29, 1998)
11		Wakata Kōichi August 1, 1963	Japan	Served on the ISS in Expedition 18, 19, and 20.	STS-72 (July 11, 1996) STS-92 (October 11, 2000) STS-119/127 (March 15, 2009)
12		Doi Takao September 18, 1954	Japan	First Japanese spacewalker	STS-87 (November 19, 1997) STS-123 (March 11, 2008)
13		Salizhan Sharipov August 24, 1964	Russia (Kyrgyzstan)	Of Uzbek ancestry. Served on ISS Expedition 10	STS-89 (January 22, 1998) Soyuz TMA-5 (October 14, 2004)
14		Yáng Lìwěi June 21, 1965	China	First astronaut from the People's Republic of China.	Shenzhou 5 (October 15, 2003)
15		Noguchi Sōichi April 15, 1965	Japan		STS-114 (July 26, 2005)
17	80px	Fèi Jùnlóng May 5, 1965	China		Shenzhou 6 (October 12, 2005)
	80px	Niè Hǎishèng October 13, 1964	China		Shenzhou 6 (October 12, 2005)
18		Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor July 27, 1972	Malaysia	First Malay in space	Soyuz TMA-11/10 (October 10, 2007)
20	80px	Hoshide Akihiko December 28, 1968	Japan		STS-124 (May 31, 2008)
23	80px	Zhái Zhìgāng October 10, 1966	China		Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008)
		Líu Bómíng October 29, 1966	China		Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008)
	80px	Jǐng Hǎipéng October 24, 1966	China		Shenzhou 7 (September 25, 2008)
24		Yamazaki Naoko December 27, 1970	Japan		STS-131 (April 5, 2010)
26		Líu Wàng 1970	China		Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012)
		Líu Yáng 1978	China		Shenzhou 9 (June 16, 2012)
28		Zhāng Xiǎoguāng May 1966	China		Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013)
		Wáng Yàpíng January 1980	China		Shenzhou 10 (June 11, 2013)

Other Asian-born astronauts

Several Soviet and Russian cosmonauts of Russian ethnicity, and some American astronauts not of Asian ancestry, were born in Asian Russia and other parts of Asia:

• Born in Asian Russia — Dmitri Kondratyev, Vasili Lazarev, Aleksei Leonov, Aleksandr Poleshchuk, Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Valery Ryumin, Vitali Sevastyanov, Maksim Surayev, Gherman Titov, Vladimir Titov, Pavel Vinogradov, Boris Volynov.
• Born in Kazakhstan — Yuri Lonchakov, Viktor Patsayev, Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksandr Viktorenko
• Born in Turkmenistan — Oleg Kononenko
• Born in Uzbekistan — Vladimir Dzhanibekov
• Born in China — William Anders, Shannon Lucid
• Born in Taiwan - Kjell N. Lindgren

See also

• List of Asian American astronauts