A NASA astronaut and two cosmonaut crew members were strapped into a Soyuz ferry Monday night, undocked from the International Space Station and made a targeted landing in the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan early Tuesday morning to complete the mission. eight month mission.
The Soyuz MS-27/73S spacecraft undocked from the laboratory at 20:41 Eastern time. With Soyuz commander Sergei Ryzhikov strapped into the center seat of the lander, flanked by cosmonaut Alexei Zubritsky to his left and NASA member Johnny Kim to his right, the Soyuz MS-27/73S spacecraft undocked from the laboratory at 8:41 p.m. Eastern Time.
After moving a safe distance to a certain point in space, the Soyuz's braking rockets fired for four minutes and 42 seconds starting at 11:09 p.m., slowing the craft, which was traveling at 17,100 mph, by about 286 mph, enough to lower the far side of the orbit into Earth's lower atmosphere.
NASA
The Soyuz lander, suspended under a large orange and white parachute, touched down at 12:03 pm EST (05:03 UTC, 10:03 local time in Kazakhstan) on Tuesday and flipped on its side.
Despite the frigid sub-zero weather, Russian rescue crews and NASA support staff quickly reached the charred spacecraft, opened the Soyuz hatch, extracted the crew and performed initial medical checks as the trio began to adjust to gravity.
NASA 
Resting briefly in a nearby chair, as is traditional for returning Soyuz crew members, Kim appeared healthy and in good spirits, smiling in gratitude after Russian rescue crews presented him with a nesting doll with a face painted on the outer shell.
After a more thorough medical examination in a heated inflatable tent, the crew would be flown by helicopter to the city of Dzhezkazgan, where Kim planned to board a NASA plane for the long flight home to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will go to Star City near Moscow for debriefings and reunite with family members.
NASA 
NASA Crew 11 pilots Zena Cardman and Mike Finke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov remained aboard the space station.
Also on board: Soyuz MS-28/74S commander Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, flight engineer Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams. They arrived at the space station on November 27. to replace Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim.
During a change of command ceremony on Sunday, Kim said what he will remember most about his eight months in space is “the bond we shared.”
“I firmly believe that the greatest quality of an astronaut and a human being is not technical competence, or loyalty, or any of the many other things that we like to attribute to astronauts. This is love,” he said. “We always gave each other grace and loved each other and everyone who supported us very much. I think that's what makes space exploration possible.”
During their time aboard the space station, Kim and his crewmates traveled 104 million miles across 3,920 orbits. Kim focused on research and maintenance of the American segment of the station, while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky performed two spacewalks.
NASA 
The son of South Korean immigrants and father of three, Kim has an impressive resume even by astronaut standards. He is a former Navy SEAL, combat veteran, and Harvard Medical School graduate.
In an interview before the launch, Kim said he had “some terrible moments” in the fight and ended up “just getting burned out really bad. I was very exhausted from the battles, the war and the losses… I needed a way to continue serving, and it seemed logical that medicine would be that means.”
As a SEAL team combat medic, Kim was accepted into Harvard Medical School. Along the way, “I probably went too far in wanting past successes to not set me up for the future.”
“I made sure that the people I worked with at the hospital didn't know that I used to be a Navy SEAL, because I wanted my patients, I wanted my colleagues, to see me as reliable, experienced and a good doctor. Not because I used to be a Navy SEAL, but because that’s what I was.”
