Astronaut Noguchi named honorary director of Cupnoodles Museums

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:27 JST, July 4, 2022

Nissin Foods Holdings Co. has announced that astronaut Soichi Noguchi had assumed the post of honorary director of its two Cupnoodles Museum locations in Japan.

One of the museums is in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, and the other is in Yokohama.

Noguchi, 57, was the first astronaut to eat Space Ram, ramen noodles specifically developed as a space food by Nissin.

Noguchi tasted the Space Ram aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 2005. The viscosity of the soup was thickened so that it would not splatter even in a zero-gravity environment. The formula for the noodles, including flour, was adjusted so that the noodles could be cooked in hot water at 70 C, which was available aboard the spacecraft.

Space Ram was developed at the behest of Nissin founder Momofuku Ando (1910-2007). “The taste of the ramen we eat on the ground was amazingly reproduced,” Noguchi said at a press conference at the time.

Nissin said it appointed Noguchi as honorary director of the museums because his desire to “work to inspire children’s dreams” matched the Cupnoodles Museums’ philosophy of “conveying to children the importance of invention and discovery.” Noguchi plans to hold educational events for children at the museums in the future, according to Nissin.