NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tuesday alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, concluding an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) aimed at benefiting life on Earth and supporting future space exploration. (PICS/ AFP)
Updated On: 2025-12-09 01:36 PM IST
Compiled by : Anushree Gaikwad
The crew departed the space station at 8:41 p.m. on Monday aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft
During their 245-day mission, the astronauts orbited Earth 3,920 times, covering nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the station on April 8
This mission marked the first spaceflight for Kim and Zubritsky, while Ryzhikov completed his third journey, bringing his cumulative time in space to 603 days
Onboard the ISS, Kim contributed to a wide range of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations. He studied the behavior of bioprinted tissues containing blood vessels in microgravity, advancing space-based tissue production to aid medical treatments on Earth
After post-landing medical checks, the crew will move to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Kim is expected to return to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston aboard a NASA aircraft
