Takao Doi

Okay, Takao Doi is the kind of person who makes you quietly recalibrate your own ambitions. Born in Tokyo in 1954, this guy didn't just study hard — he went all the way to Rice University, earned his stripes as an engineer, and then became one of the very few humans to actually leave the planet. He flew on two Space Shuttle missions and became the first Japanese astronaut to perform a spacewalk, which is, you know, not something you put on a résumé without it being the whole résumé. I find that deeply, genuinely cool.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Takao Doi is a Japanese astronaut and engineer born on September 18, 1954, in Tokyo. He holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Tokyo and a PhD in astronomy from Rice University, and flew on two NASA Space Shuttle missions. He has been recognized with the Third-Class Order of Merit of Ukraine.

Name (English)

Takao Doi

Name (Japanese)

土井隆雄

Reading

どい たかお

Born

September 18, 1954 (age 72)

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Astronaut / Engineer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Horse

University

Rice University

Awards & achievements

• Third-Class Order of Merit of Ukraine (year unknown)

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%9F%E4%BA%95%E9%9A%86%E9%9B%84
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q461887

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Astronaut
• Engineer

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.