First Korean American NASA Astronaut to Return to Earth After 245-Day Mission

Johnny Kim to Board Return Spacecraft on December 8
From LA Immigrant Second Generation to NASA Astronaut
Orbiting Earth 3,900 Times and Traveling Over 167 Million Kilometers on the ISS

Johnny Kim, 41, has become the first Korean American to travel to space as a NASA astronaut, and he is set to return to Earth after completing a 245-day space mission.

According to NASA and other sources on December 6, the return spacecraft carrying Johnny Kim is scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) on December 8, Eastern Time, and land in the Kazakh steppe on December 9. The return process and the ISS command handover ceremony will be broadcast live on the NASA YouTube channel.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Getty Images Yonhap News Agency

Johnny Kim was born in 1984 in Los Angeles, California, as the son of Korean immigrant parents. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy before working as a physician, and later was selected as a NASA astronaut, gaining attention in American society as a "multi-career" astronaut. This mission, which he took on eight years after being selected in 2017, is effectively his first space mission.

He carried out a long-duration mission on the ISS alongside Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Over approximately 245 days, they orbited the Earth more than 3,900 times, covering a total flight distance of about 167.37 million kilometers. This distance exceeds the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is about 150 million kilometers.

Immediately after landing, the three crew members will be transported by helicopter to Karaganda Province in Kazakhstan. Johnny Kim will then return to Houston, Texas, using a NASA aircraft, while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will return to a training base near Moscow, Russia.