NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky returned to Earth Tuesday after completing an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft made a safe, parachute-assisted touchdown at 10:03 a.m. local time southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The vehicle had departed the station at 8:41 p.m. on December 8.
The trio spent 245 days in space, completing 3,920 orbits and traveling nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the station on April 8. It was the first spaceflight for Kim and Zubritsky; Ryzhikov completed his third mission, taking his cumulative time in space to 603 days.
During their stay, Kim carried out a range of experiments and technology demonstrations. His work included studies of bioprinted tissues with blood vessels in microgravity to advance space-based tissue production for Earth patients; evaluations of remotely commanding multiple robots for the Surface Avatar investigation to inform future robotic assistants; and in-space manufacturing experiments on DNA-mimicking nanomaterials to improve drug delivery and support regenerative medicine.
Following brief medical checks at the landing site, the crew will move to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Kim is scheduled to return to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. For more than 25 years the ISS has sustained continuous human presence, serving as a vital testbed for long-duration spaceflight and commercial low Earth orbit activity as NASA prepares for Artemis missions to the Moon and future exploration of Mars.
