Parachute Landing In Kazakhstan Completes Eight-Month Science Mission

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky returned to Earth on December 9 after accomplishing an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station. The science mission was for the benefit of future space exploration as well as life on Earth.

The spacefarers returned on board the Soyuz MS-27spacecraft which departed the space station at 8:41 pm EST December 8, and landed near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 12:03 am EST.

During the crew’s 245 days in space after launching on April 8, they orbited the Earth 3,920 times and traveled a total of nearly 104 million miles. This was Ryzhikov’s third mission in space while both Kim and Zubritsky logged their inaugural flights. Ryzhikov now has a total of 603 days in space.

On board the orbiting lab, Kim studied the behavior of bioprinted tissues containing blood vessels in microgravity for an experiment to advance space-based tissue production for treatment of patients on Earth.

Kim also evaluated the remote command of robots for the Surface Avatar study in support of the development of robotic assistants for future space exploration missions. In addition, he performed work on manufacturing DNA-mimicking nanomaterials to improve drug delivery technologies.

The crew will undergo post-flight medical checks and then return to the staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Kim will travel aboard a NASA aircraft to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

People have lived and worked aboard the ISS continuously for over 25 years, advancing scientific knowledge and conducting research that is not possible on Earth. The space station is due to be decommissioned in 2030 and current work is focused on developing a replacement orbital habitat and lab, as well as the burgeoning commercial low Earth orbit economy sector.

FMI:  www.nasa.gov/