A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station on Monday evening and made a precision return to Earth early Tuesday, completing an eight-month expedition.
Descent and Landing
Soyuz MS-27/73S commander Sergey Ryzhikov sat in the center descent seat, with cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky to his left and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim to his right when the spacecraft undocked from the orbital lab at 8:41 p.m. ET. After moving to a safe separation point, the Soyuz’s braking rockets fired for 4 minutes and 42 seconds beginning at 11:09 p.m., slowing the vehicle from about 17,100 mph by roughly 286 mph—enough to lower the far side of the orbit and trigger atmospheric re-entry.
Subjected to peak re-entry temperatures near 2,500°F and heavy deceleration, the descent module deployed a large orange-and-white parachute and touched down on the frozen Kazakh steppe at 12:03 a.m. EST Tuesday (0503 UTC; 10:03 a.m. local time in Kazakhstan). The capsule landed tipped onto its side.
Recovery and Medical Checks
Braving sub-freezing conditions, Russian recovery teams and NASA support staff quickly reached the scorched capsule, opened the hatch and extracted the three crewmembers for initial medical checks as they re-adapted to Earth’s gravity. Following the traditional brief rest in a reclining chair, Jonny Kim appeared in good spirits and accepted a matryoshka doll painted with his likeness.
After more comprehensive medical screenings inside a heated inflatable tent, the crew was scheduled to fly by helicopter to Dzhezkazgan. From there Kim was to board a NASA aircraft bound for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky headed to Star City near Moscow for debriefings and family reunions.
Crew, Mission Highlights and Replacements
Remaining aboard the ISS are NASA Crew-11 members Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Also on station are Soyuz MS-28/74S commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, flight engineer Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, who arrived Nov. 27 to relieve Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim.
During their eight-month mission the threesome completed 3,920 orbits and traveled roughly 104 million miles. Kim focused on science and maintenance in the U.S. segment of the station while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky conducted two spacewalks.
Jonny Kim: From Navy SEAL to Physician-Astronaut
Jonny Kim, the son of South Korean immigrants and a father of three, has a notable background even by astronaut standards: he is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and combat veteran who later graduated from Harvard Medical School. At a change-of-command ceremony, Kim said the strongest memory from his time in orbit was "the bond that we shared together," adding that love and mutual grace among the crew made their work possible.
"I firmly believe that the greatest quality of an astronaut, and a human, is not technical competence... It's love," Kim said.
This mission underscored both the technical precision of crewed Soyuz returns and the personal resilience of astronauts re-acclimating to life on Earth after long-duration spaceflight.
