Kimiya Yui

AF Lieutenant-Colonel, Retired
JAXA Astronaut, Japan

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
Born in 1970 in Nagano Prefecture.

EDUCATION:
In 1988 Kimiya Yui graduated from the Nozawa-kita High school in Nagano.

In 1988 he entered and in 1992 graduated from the Japan National Defense Academy and received a Bachelor of science degree in machine-building.

FAMILY STATUS: married, has three children.

HOBBY: golf, tennis, reading books.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
Served in Self-Defense Air Forces, Japan.

In 1993 Kimiya Yui began to pass the flight training as a pilot of aircraft T-3, T-1, T-2 in Japan and aircraft T-38, AT-38 in the US Air Forces.

In 1996 he was transferred to the 204th Squadron as a pilot of aircraft F-15.

In 2000 he was assigned to the Japan National Defence Academy as an instructor-officer.

In 2002-2003 Kimiya Yui passed training in Japan, namely completed the Test Pilot Course and in 2003-2004 he passed the Command and Staff Course at the Air Staff College.

In 2004-2006 Kimiya Yui served as a test pilot of aircraft F-15.

In 2006 in USA he graduated from the Joint Combined Warfighting School at the Joint Forces Staff College.

Since 2006 Kimiya Yui served in the Bilateral Operations Section of the Joint Staff.

From 2008 to the time of selection as an astronaut candidate he served in the Defence Plans and Program Division at the Air Staff Office.

His total time of flying different types of aircraft is more than 2000 hours (by the time of selection as an astronaut candidate).

Kimiya Yui retired in April 2009.

On February 25, 2009 he was selected as a candidate for the Japan Space Agency (JAXA) astronaut.

On April 1, 2009 Kimiya Yui was enlisted in JAXA Staff and began to pass the basic training at Tsukuba Space Center.

In August 2009 he began to pass general space training at Johnson Space Center together with astronauts of the 20th selection, NASA.

On July 25, 2011 upon completion of general space training he got a qualification of the ISS astronaut. Participated in NASA experiments made in underwater laboratory, USA.

On October 5, 2012 JAXA reported that Kimiya Yui was assigned to the ISS-44/45 crew.

In December 2012, besides Oleg Kononenko and Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui became a member of the prime crew of Soyuz TMA-17M (the ISS-44/45) and the backup crew of Soyuz TMA-15M (the ISS 42/43).

At a period of January 27-28, 2014 he together with Oleg Kononenko and Kjell Lindgren took part in the autonomous integrated trainings in actions in case of the emergency landing in the wooded – marshy locality in winter.

Early in February 2014 he began to train at Yu.A. Gagarin CTC; his training lasted about 2 weeks. The training envisaged the following: study of the Soyuz TMA manned transport vehicle structure and systems, as well as the ISS Russian Segment using simulators, training sessions on actions in case of water landing. In the second half of February he retuned to Japan and continued to train at Tsukuba Space Center; the training envisaged study of different systems of Japanese Module Kibo.

On October 30, 2014 Kimiya Yui began to pass the integrated training within the backup crew together with the vehicle commander Oleg Kononenko and flight engineer Kjell Lindgren. That day the examination training on the Soyuz TMA simulator occurred. On October 31 the crew passed the test training on the ISS Russian Segment simulator with an excellent mark.

On November 6, 2014 he was approved by the Interdepartmental Commission as flight engineer-1 of the backup crew of the Soyuz TMA-15M vehicle. On November 7, 2014 his assignment was approved at the meeting of the Federal Space Agency Board.

On November 22, 2014 at the meeting of the State Commission on the Baikonur cosmodrome Lindgren was approved as flight engineer-1 of the backup crew of the Soyuz TMA-15M MTV. During the vehicle launch on November 24, 2014 he was a backup of flight engineer-1.