Three astronauts return from ISS in Soyuz capsule
Early today one American and two Russians safely returned to Earth, their Soyuz capsule touching down on the plains of Kazakhstan after spending more than eight months on ISS.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tuesday alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, wrapping up an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station to benefit life on Earth and future space exploration. They made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 12:03 a.m. EST (10:03 a.m. local time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after departing the space station at 8:41 p.m. on Dec. 8, aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.
Over the course of 245 days in space, the crew orbited Earth 3,920 times, traveling nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the space station on April 8. This mission marked the first spaceflight for both Kim and Zubritsky, while Ryzhikov completed his third journey to space, logging a total of 603 days in space.
There remains on ISS one Soyuz, with its crew of three, with a planned return in July 2026. Getting its replacement crew launched however remains an unknown right now because of the damage to the Soyuz-2 rocket launchpad in Baikonur that occurred when they were launched two weeks ago. Roscosmos has provided no public updates about its plans to fix the pad or replace it, and until such plans are revealed, the Russians have no ability to launch any further manned missions.
This is why I speculated earlier that the present Soyuz crew might be starting an extended mission, awaiting repairs to the launchpad.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Early today one American and two Russians safely returned to Earth, their Soyuz capsule touching down on the plains of Kazakhstan after spending more than eight months on ISS.
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tuesday alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, wrapping up an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station to benefit life on Earth and future space exploration. They made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 12:03 a.m. EST (10:03 a.m. local time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after departing the space station at 8:41 p.m. on Dec. 8, aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.
Over the course of 245 days in space, the crew orbited Earth 3,920 times, traveling nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the space station on April 8. This mission marked the first spaceflight for both Kim and Zubritsky, while Ryzhikov completed his third journey to space, logging a total of 603 days in space.
There remains on ISS one Soyuz, with its crew of three, with a planned return in July 2026. Getting its replacement crew launched however remains an unknown right now because of the damage to the Soyuz-2 rocket launchpad in Baikonur that occurred when they were launched two weeks ago. Roscosmos has provided no public updates about its plans to fix the pad or replace it, and until such plans are revealed, the Russians have no ability to launch any further manned missions.
This is why I speculated earlier that the present Soyuz crew might be starting an extended mission, awaiting repairs to the launchpad.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


I watched some of it via Space Affairs. Kim had problems clearing his ears during the parachute descent, receiving some English-language advice from veteran Ryzhikov. While resting at the landing site, Ryzhikov commented that the other rookie, Zubritsky, had “reached for the bag.” Shortly afterwards, Zubritsky was carried directly from the capsule to the med tent, face hidden from view. Kim emerged last, and looked fine. He said Ryzhikov had suggested chewing gum, but he (Kim) was now having difficulty removing it from his ears.
Okay sorry. Last sentence is an old Aggie joke.
Ha!
Patrick Underwood,
Double Ha! The old jokes are often the best jokes.
I’m glad the MS-27 astronauts are back, safe (if nauseous).
But as for the future, I suspect that the Russians will undertake a combination of a longer mission (they were talking about doing that before all this) and jury-rigging an arrangement for access to the engines. Which, hey, is their right. But NASA should point blank refuse to put one of their astronauts in the swap seat until Roscosmos gives them complete access and insight into what they have done.
Richard M,
Absolutely concur. If the Russkies insist on stretching out their ISS stays beyond even eight months while they fiddle together some cobbly kludge to the Baikonur pad, we should just cancel the whole damned seat-swap nonsense outright and make arrangements to bring back the US astro who just went up via Soyuz on a Dragon by launching only three on the next Dragon mission. He can come back in the seat that would have been occupied by a Russian when the seat-swap was still in play so no Americans or non-Russian allies would get euchered out of a ride thereby. As with Ukraine, it needs to be made crystal clear to the Russkies that they cannot just do whatever they want for their convenience or inability and have the US and the other ISS partners roll over and take it.
Dick Eagleson: As I speculated last week when this pad damage was first revealed, I fully expect the Russians to attempt to stretch out the present mission past its July return date, possibly stretching it long enough to break the record of 14.5 months set by Valeri Polykov. And if they do, don’t expect NASA to do anything about it. Roscosmos has been walking all over NASA for years in this partnership. Why should that stop now?
Personally, I would have no complaint if the Russians do this. It would be a good solution to the situation, turning lemons into lemonade.