Korean-American NASA astronaut Jonny Kim embarked on his journey to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft on April 8.
Soyuz MS-27, carrying Kim along with Russian astronauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Aleksei Zhurbitsky, was launched at 2:47 p.m. Korea time from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 8, according to NASA’s live broadcast.
This marks Kim’s first spaceflight in eight years since he was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. The 41-year-old son of Korean immigrants overcame a tough childhood to become a Navy SEAL, a doctor, and now an astronaut. After graduating from high school in 2002, he joined the U.S. Navy SEALs, where he carried out over 100 combat missions in the Middle East and earned four military honors, including the Silver Star. Later, he graduated with honors in mathematics from UC San Diego and earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 2016, before working as a physician at a Boston hospital.
During an online interview with NASA on March 19, Kim described his mission as “public service,” saying, “Just to have a small contribution in that is really meaningful for me,” adding that he is “a huge believer in public service.”
Soyuz MS-27 is expected to dock with the ISS around 6:00 p.m. Korea time. Kim will spend the next eight months aboard the station, conducting research and performing technical demonstrations.
