NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim Assigned to First International Space Station Mission

NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim Assigned to First International Space Station Mission

Official portrait of NASA astronaut Jonny Kim posing in a spacesuit at NASA's Johnson Space Center

2017 NASA Astronaut Candidate Jonny Kim

2017 NASA astronaut candidate Jonny Kim wears a spacesuit prior to underwater spacewalk training at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston

2017 NASA astronaut candidate Jonny Kim prepares for underwater spacewalk training at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston

2017 NASA astronaut candidate Jonny Kim is lowered into the training pool for spacewalk training at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston

NASA portrait of 2017 Astronaut Candidate Jonny Kim in front of a T-38 trainer aircraft at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim wearing a high-altitude pressure suit worn in the WB-57 aircraft, which is capable of flying at altitudes over 60,000 feet

During his first mission to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will serve as a flight engineer and member of the upcoming Expedition 72/73 crew. Kim will launch on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft in March 2025, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. The trio will spend approximately eight months at the space station.

While aboard the orbiting laboratory, Kim will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare the crew for future space missions and provide benefits to people on Earth.

NASA selected Kim as an astronaut in 2017. After completing the initial astronaut candidate training, Kim supported mission and crew operations in various roles including the Expedition 65 lead operations officer, T-38 operations liaison, and space station capcom chief engineer.

A native of Los Angeles, Kim is a United States Navy lieutenant commander and dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon. Kim also served as an enlisted Navy SEAL. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of San Diego and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and completed his internship with the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

For more than two decades, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge, and making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA is able to more fully focus its resources on deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.

NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim's Biography:

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/astronauts/jonny-kim/

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Article Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/JSC

Image Credits: NASA/Josh Valcarcel/Robert Markowitz/Norah Moran

Release Date: Aug. 28, 2024

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