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The fourth crewed area mission of 2025 is now underway. Soyuz MS-27 launched efficiently at 05:47 UTC on Tuesday, April 8, from Website 31/6 on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Roscosmos’ Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky, and NASA’s Jonathan “Jonny” Kim have been onboard, flying to the Worldwide House Station (ISS).
After its nominal launch, Soyuz MS-27 docked to the Prichal module of the Russian phase of the Station at 08:57 UTC on Tuesday. After docking, this Soyuz now joins Soyuz MS-26, Crew Dragon Endurance, Progress MS-29, and Progress MS-30 as a part of the visiting car complement on the orbiting laboratory.
The three Soyuz MS-27 crew members joined the Crew-10 and Soyuz MS-26 astronauts on the ISS, growing the variety of folks on the Station to 10 in the course of the handover between the MS-26 and MS-27 crews. Soyuz MS-26 is scheduled to undock from the Station on April 20, whereupon Expedition 72 will come to an in depth, and Expedition 73 will start.
Soyuz MS-27 crewmembers from left to proper: Jonny Kim, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Alexey Zubritsky. (Credit score: Gagarin Cosmonaut Coaching Heart)
Soyuz MS-27 is commanded by Sergey Ryzhikov, a spaceflight veteran making his third flight to area. Born in August 1974 in Bugulma, Tatarstan, Ryzhikov is a graduate of the Kachinsky Larger Army Aviation Faculty of Pilots and a lieutenant colonel within the Russian Air Pressure. Ryzhikov has earned over 700 flight hours on plane just like the L-39 Albatros and MiG-29 Fulcrum, in addition to 350 parachute jumps.
Ryzhikov was chosen by Roscosmos as a cosmonaut in October 2006 and completed his coaching in June 2009. He skilled alongside European House Company (ESA) astronauts Tim Peake and Thomas Pesquet, together with Japan’s Norishige Kanai and NASA’s Randolph Bresnik, in the course of the ESA CAVES mission in Sardinia in 2011.
Ryzhikov’s first spaceflight was Soyuz MS-02, which launched on Oct. 19, 2016. He spent 173 days aboard ISS throughout Expedition 49 and Expedition 50 and returned to Earth on April 10, 2017. His second flight, Soyuz MS-17, launched to the Station on Oct. 14, 2020, becoming a member of the Expedition 63 crew. Ryzhikov later commanded the ISS throughout Expedition 64 and performed a spacewalk throughout his 185-day keep in orbit.
Cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov outdoors of the ISS throughout Russian EVA-47 on Nov. 18, 2020. (Credit score: Roscosmos/Sergey Kud-Sverchkov)
Fellow Roscosmos crew member Alexey Zubritsky, born within the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine in August 1992, is one among two flight engineers on Soyuz MS-27. Zubritsky, a senior lieutenant within the Russian Air Pressure, was chosen as a cosmonaut in 2018. He’s a graduate of the Ivan Kozhedub Nationwide College of the Air Pressure and is making his first spaceflight.
Becoming a member of Ryzhikov and Zubritsky is NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, serving because the mission’s second flight engineer. Born in Los Angeles, California, in February 1984, Kim enlisted within the U.S. Navy after graduating from highschool in 2002. He grew to become a Navy SEAL after his preliminary coaching.
Kim served on SEAL Workforce 3 and noticed fight within the Center East, incomes a Silver Star and different awards, earlier than incomes a fee as an officer in 2012. Later, he grew to become an aeromedical dual-designated flight surgeon and naval aviator. At present a lieutenant commander within the Navy, Kim was chosen as a part of the 2017 NASA Group 22 astronaut class, often known as the “Turtles,” and served as a capsule communicator (CAPCOM) in Mission Management beginning in 2020.
Astronaut Jonny Kim photographed in an EVA go well with. (Credit score: NASA)
Kim has additionally served as an operations officer for the ISS program and was chosen as one among 17 astronauts on the primary “Artemis Workforce” to coach for the primary crewed missions of the Artemis program.
Kim holds a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in arithmetic from the College of San Diego and a Physician of Medication diploma from Harvard Medical Faculty. Married with three youngsters, he additionally accomplished a medical internship at two hospitals in Boston and earned a Pat Tillman Basis’s Tillman Scholar choice.
Soyuz MS-27 is scheduled to spend eight months docked to the Russian phase of the ISS, with its return to Earth scheduled for Dec. 8. In the course of the crew’s time in orbit, they are going to conduct experiments and upkeep work on the Station’s methods. A minimum of one EVA continues to be deliberate this 12 months for the U.S. phase of the Station, and Jonny Kim is skilled on EVA operations.
The Soyuz MS-27 crew was initially assigned because the Soyuz MS-26 backup crew. Sometimes, backup crews for one mission turn out to be the first crew for the subsequent Soyuz flight, although there have been crew modifications prior to now resulting from sickness or different elements.
The crew of Expedition 73, comprised of members of Soyuz MS-27 and Crew-10. (Credit score: NASA)
The backup crew for Soyuz MS-27 was veteran commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, flight engineer Sergey Mikayev, and flight engineer Christopher Williams of NASA. They’ve been named because the prime crew for Soyuz MS-28, scheduled to launch no sooner than Nov. 27. As soon as the handover between the 2 crews is full, Expedition 73 will finish with Soyuz MS-27’s undocking on Dec. 8, and Expedition 74 will formally begin.
The Soyuz MS-27 launch was the second Soyuz 2.1a rocket launch of 2025 and the primary of two Soyuz crewed flights from Baikonur this 12 months.
(Lead picture: Soyuz MS-27 launching to the Worldwide House Station on April 8, 2025. Credit score: NASA TV))
