Astronaut, 2 Cosmonauts Arrive At The ISS: Soyuz MS-27 Mission

The Russian Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 8, 2025, at 0547 UTC. The spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on the same day at 0857 UTC.

"I am so proud and excited," said Kim at the crew's pre-launch press conference on Monday (April 7). "We have come together, against all odds, and worked to [depart] on this journey."

Following hatch opening, Tuesday, Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim will were welcomed aboard the space station by the Expedition 72 crew, led by cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin as the station's commander, along with flight engineers Kirill Peskov and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers, Anne McClain and Don Pettit; and Takuya Onishi with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim, together with Ayers, McClain, Peskov and Onishi, will then form the Expedition 73 crew with Onishi in command, when Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit return to Earth April 19 on board Soyuz MS-26.

The Soyuz MS-27 crew is expected to spend approximately eight months aboard the ISS, returning to Earth in December.

This is the first spaceflight for both Zubritsky, and Kim — a medical doctor and former Navy SEAL who is the first Korean-American astronaut to reach the ISS; and It's the third mission for Ryzhikov, who spent nearly a year on the orbiting lab across two missions in 2016-2017 and 2020-2021.