Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi said Tuesday he is still trying to adapt to life in space after arriving at the International Space Station aboard a commercially developed SpaceX Crew Dragon ship about a week ago.

It will still take more time for my body to get used to (this environment), the 55-year-old veteran astronaut said in an online news conference. I would like to go back to basics and conduct my mission with a clean state of mind.

The Crew Dragon ship carrying Noguchi and three American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker docked with the ISS after lifting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 15. Their arrival raised the total number aboard the ISS to seven.

He said each mission is different and noticed how much the space station had changed since his last stay 10 years ago.

Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005 and a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2009.

During his current mission, Noguchi said he is looking forward to sharing space food with other crew members. He said he brought fried chicken and yakisoba stir-fried noodles from Japan, as well as salmon rice balls and red rice he plans to share on the occasion of Thanksgiving later this month.

What is most important in terms of life in space is having a wide variety of food, he said. I think the American and Russian astronauts will enjoy (what I brought).

He is expected to carry out experiments involving iPS cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells, that can be converted into different types of cells in the body during his stay on the ISS, according to JAXA.

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Astronaut Soichi Noguchi still adapting to life on ISS - The Japan Times