NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, would be the first Korean-American astronaut to carry out a long-duration mission.
Kim will spend eight months on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), beginning in March 2025, as a part of the Expedition 72 and 73 crews, NASA officers introduced Wednesday (Aug. 28). He’ll fly to house aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft alongside Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky; the cosmonauts’ assignments have been introduced in TASS (Russian state media) final week through Roscosmos, the Russian house company.
“I am extremely honored to signify … our continued dedication to worldwide collaboration and scientific discovery at NASA,” Kim posted on X, previously Twitter, on Thursday (Aug. 29). “Teamwork is without doubt one of the most vital components of success in mission-critical environments reminiscent of house.”
Associated: NASA astronauts converse out for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (video)
Whereas most U.S. astronauts fly to house aboard American spacecraft today, Kim will fly on Soyuz, like another NASA crewmembers have prior to now, for backup and coverage causes. Roscosmos cosmonauts additionally do seat exchanges on U.S. spacecraft, with Aleksandr Gorbunov as the newest one, assigned to SpaceX Crew-9 launching on Sept. 24. That stated, Crew-9’s astronauts aboard Crew Dragon might want to cut back from 4 members to 2 as a consequence of problems with the Boeing Starliner mission.
Crew-9 might want to create room in its capsule to carry two different ISS-based NASA astronauts residence. These astronauts have been initially meant to return residence on the Starliner capsule that introduced them to the station, however Starliner’s return with astronauts on board was deemed an unacceptable danger this month as a consequence of issues with the spacecraft’s thruster system.
Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will transfer to Crew Dragon and occupy two of the seats for the trip to Earth in February 2025, with Gorbunov and U.S. Area Power astronaut Nick Hague flying to house on Crew-9 and flying residence with the Starliner astronauts.
Two unique Crew-9 members will transfer to a different flight: NASA’s Zena Cardman, one other “Turtles” member who has not been to house, and shuttle astronaut Stephanie Williams can be reassigned at a later level, NASA officers wrote on Friday (Aug. 30).
Crew-9’s launch was delayed till at the very least Sept. 24 (from Aug. 18) to provide further time for reconfiguring the spacecraft for 2 crew members, as a substitute of 4. Crew-8, at the moment docked at ISS, was delayed in its departure because the crew schedule requires a handover interval between ISS crews.
That stated, Crew-9’s Sept. 24 launch date is just not a lock but. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fleet could also be grounded, together with for all human launches, after a rocket caught hearth and tipped over throughout touchdown Wednesday (Aug. 28) following a profitable SpaceX Starlink satellite tv for pc launch. (A special variant of Falcon 9 carries Crew Dragon to the ISS.)
Associated: FAA requires investigation into SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket touchdown failure
SpaceX has not but revealed the impression on crew launch actions, which within the close to future embody Crew-9 to the ISS and the non-public Polaris Daybreak mission to Earth orbit. In a press release to the Washington Put up, NASA officers stated they’re concerned within the investigation and the launching schedule can be decided.
Starliner, Crew-8 and Crew-9 delays have had ripple-on results on the remainder of the house station’s operations and crew schedules stay considerably in flux in consequence. That stated, neither NASA nor TASS has said why Soyuz MS-27 can be for eight months as a substitute of the same old six.
As ISS flight engineer, Kim will “conduct scientific investigations and expertise demonstrations to assist put together the crew for future house missions and supply advantages to individuals on Earth,” NASA officers stated within the assertion asserting his task to an area mission.
His floor expertise with NASA consists of Expedition 65 lead operations officer, operations liaison for the T-38 jet used for astronaut flight coaching, and house station capcom engineer.
Kim, a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, is on energetic responsibility as each a naval aviator and a flight surgeon beneath the aeromedical twin designation program. This system “is often for medical officers to hunt a twin qualification in naval aviation to higher perceive the results of flight on the human system,” in accordance with the U.S. Navy.
Kim was born in Los Angeles the place his father, a South Korean immigrant, managed a liquor retailer. The shop was broken in 1992, together with a reported 2,200 different Korean companies within the neighborhood as a consequence of protests locally.
The protests erupted after 4 Los Angeles cops have been acquitted following the beating of Rodney King, a Black man who was pulled over on a freeway in 1991 after a high-speed pursuit. (The roots of focusing on the Korean group are complicated, however partially seem like linked to restricted assets for marginalized communities in Los Angeles together with African-Individuals and Korean-Individuals, in accordance with NBC.)
“It was a really worrying time,” Kim advised Stars and Stripes in 2020 of the impact of those protests on his group.
Kim’s Navy service consists of enlisting as a SEAL and serving in Iraq throughout two deployments and greater than 100 fight missions, in accordance with Stars and Stripes. His Navy awards embody a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with “V” gadget. The “V” designating duties of valor.
He previously held internships on the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Drugs Residency program at Massachusetts Common Hospital, in addition to Brigham and Girls’s Hospital. He holds a bachelor’s diploma in arithmetic from the College of San Diego and a medical diploma from Harvard Medical College in Boston.
Kim would be the second Korean-American in orbit following the spaceflights of U.S. Air Power pilot and NASA astronaut Mark L. Polansky, who additionally has Korean ancestry, in accordance with Purdue College. Polansky flew three house shuttle missions: STS-98 in 2001, STS-116 in 2006 and STS-127 in 2009.
