NASA has assigned astronaut Jonny Kim as a flight engineer and member of the upcoming Expedition 72/73 to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition will launch in March 2025 on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft. It will be Kim’s first mission to the ISS.
Kim is scheduled to stay on the ISS for eight months. On board the orbital laboratory, he will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations to prepare the crew for future space missions.
NASA selected Kim as an astronaut in 2017. After completing initial astronaut training, he supported mission and crew operations in a variety of roles, including Expedition 65 lead operations officer, T-38 operations liaison, and space station Capcom chief engineer.
Kim is a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy and a dual-certified Naval Aviator and Flight Surgeon. He also served as a Navy SEAL. Kim 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 in the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The ISS remains an important test site for NASA to understand the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. While commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA can focus more of its resources on deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.
Kim will be accompanied on the Soyuz MS-27 launch by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Alexei Zubritsky, who will also stay on the ISS for eight months.
