physics

Satoshi Furukawa

Satoshi Furukawa is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Satoshi Furukawa rather than just read about it. In short: Satoshi Furukawa (古川聡, Furukawa Satoshi; born April 4, 1964) is a Japanese surgeon and retired JAXA astronaut. Furukawa was assigned to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on long-duration missions Expedition 28/29 (2011) and Expedition 69/70 (2023-2024).

Key takeaways

Satoshi Furukawa belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Satoshi Furukawa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Satoshi Furukawa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Satoshi Furukawa (古川聡, Furukawa Satoshi; born April 4, 1964) is a Japanese surgeon and retired JAXA astronaut. Furukawa was assigned to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on long-duration missions Expedition 28/29 (2011) and Expedition 69/70 (2023-2024).

Medical career Furakawa graduated from Eiko high school, Kamakura, in 1983; he received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tokyo in 1989, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Medical Science from the same in 2000. From 1989 to 1999, Furukawa worked in the Department of Surgery at the University of Tokyo, as well as the Department of Anesthesiology at JR Tokyo General Hospital, the Department of Surgery at Ibaraki Prefectural Central Hospital, and at Sakuragaoka Hospital.

NASDA/JAXA career In February 1999, Furukawa was selected by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) as one of three Japanese astronaut candidates for the International Space Station (ISS). He started the ISS Astronaut Basic Training program in April 1999 and was certified as an astronaut in January 2001. Since April 2001, he has been participating in ISS Advanced Training, as well as supporting the development of the hardware and operation of the Japanese ISS Experimental Module Kibō. On October 1, 2003, NASDA merged with ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) and NAL (National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan) and was renamed JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). In May 2004, he completed Soyuz-TMA Flight Engineer-1 training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), Star City, Russia.

Furukawa arrived at the Johnson Space Center in June 2004. In February 2006, he completed NASA Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 Talon flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. Completion of this initial training qualified him for various technical assignments within the NASA Astronaut Office and for flight assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle missions. In August 2007, Furukawa served as an aquanaut during the NEEMO 13 project, an exploration research mission held in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research laboratory. In 2013, Furukawa served as cavenaut into the ESA CAVES training in Sardinia, alongside Jeremy Hansen, Michael Barratt, Jack Fisher, Aleksei Ovchinin, and Paolo Nespoli.

Spaceflight experience Furukawa was assigned as a flight engineer to the International Space Station Expedition 28/29 long duration missions. The Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft carrying Furukawa, cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and NASA astronaut Michael Fossum lifted off from the Baikonour Cosmodrome on June 7, 2011. Carrying the same crew, Soyuz TMA-02M undocked from the ISS at 11:00 pm UTC on November 21, 2011. The spacecraft soft-landed safely—albeit on its side—in Kazakhstan at 2:26 am UTC on November 22. In 2023-2024, he completed a second long-duration flight to the ISS as a mission specialist on Expedition 69/70, lifting off on the Crew-7 mission of a SpaceX Crew Dragon on August 26, 2023 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and returning to Earth on March 12, 2024. Furukawa announced his retirement from JAXA on March 31, 2026.

Controversies In 2016 and 2017, Furukawa was overseeing a two-week-long spaceflight analog mission in Tsukuba, a city northeast of Tokyo. 40 participants were confined to closed environments to simulate what astronauts experience during spaceflight, and their stress levels and mental well-being were to be assessed by two researchers. The researchers fabricated research data, compiling psychological assessments without actually conducting interviews and rewriting participant diagnoses. They also claimed that three researchers had conducted the interviews when there were only two. In November 2020, JAXA began investigating the research results and subsequently suspended the 190 million yen ($1.4 million) experiment. Furukawa was officially reprimanded by JAXA due to his role as project supervisor. However, since he was not personally involved in fabricating the data, Furukawa was allowed to remain on the current ISS mission in 2023.

Personal Furukawa was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. He enjoys baseball, bowling, music, and traveling. He is married and has two children.

References This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

External links

Satoshi Furukawa on X Spacefacts biography of Satoshi Furukawa

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Satoshi Furukawa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Satoshi Furukawa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Satoshi Furukawa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Satoshi Furukawa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Satoshi Furukawa

In research: Satoshi Furukawa appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Satoshi Furukawa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Satoshi Furukawa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1964 births, Aquanauts, Crew members of the International Space Station, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Satoshi Furukawa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Satoshi Furukawa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Satoshi Furukawa means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Satoshi Furukawa out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Satoshi Furukawa in simple terms?

Why does Satoshi Furukawa matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Satoshi Furukawa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Satoshi Furukawa.