Kim Will Serve as a Flight Engineer on the Upcoming Expedition 72/73

NASA announced on August 28 that Jonny Kim, an astronaut and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, will soon be making his first trip to the Space Station. He will serve as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 72/73 crew in March 2025. 

Lieutenant Commander Jonny Kim was selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2017. He is a designated Naval Aviator and Flight Surgeon, and has completed over 100 combat operations as a Navy SEAL. Kim began supporting International Space Station operations in 2020. He was a Capsule Communicator (CapCom) in Houston’s Mission Control Center. Around this time, he was also one of 18 astronauts selected for the Artemis program, but was not selected for the mission. Then, in 2021, he was selected to be the Increment Lead for the ISS Expedition 65.

Kim will take his first spaceflight on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 rocket in March 2025. Two other astronauts, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of Russia, will join him. The three will spend eight months on the International Space Station conducting scientific research and technology demonstrations. This aims to help prepare for future space missions.

The flight will be carried out under the Roscosmos and NASA cross-flight program. Roscosmos, or the State Corporation for Space Activities, is part of the Russian Federation. It is responsible for the country’s space explorations, cosmonautics, and general aerospace investigations.

Under the cross-flight agreement, one American astronaut is sent to the ISS as a part of a Russian spacecraft crew, and vice versa. With this, NASA will send Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on the Crew Dragon Crew-10 mission in February 2025.

The agreement, despite current conflicts, was only recently extended until 2025. This was decided in order to “maintain the reliability of the ISS operation,” Roscosmos explained. The agencies believe that permitting both countries consistent access to the ISS helps to uphold its operational security, even if the partnership is a controversial one.

FMI: www.nasa.gov