NASA astronaut and 2 cosmonauts land aboard Russian Soyuz after 8 months on International Space Station

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut are safely back on Earth after spending eight months aboard the International Space Station.

Soyuz MS-27 crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos, along with Jonny Kim of NASA, landed on the cold, snow-flurry-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on Tuesday (Dec. 9). The spacecraft, descending under a parachute and cushioned by braking thrusters, met the ground at 12:03 a.m. EST (0503 GMT or 10:03 a.m. local time).

A Roscosmos recovery team, together with representatives from NASA, were quickly on site to assist the three Soyuz MS-27 crew members out of the capsule and into chairs for brief medical checks.

Ryzhikov and Kim looked to be in fine condition and in good spirits. Zubritsky was taken directly from the Soyuz to an inflatable medical tent.

“Congratulations on one more end of a Soyuz vehicle trip. Expedition 73, all tasks complete,” said Ryzhikov after the landing. “The crew are feeling great.”

The cosmonauts and astronaut will next be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where the recovery teams are based. Kim will then board a NASA aircraft and be transported to Houston, while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will depart for the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim’s journey back to Earth began on Monday (Dec. 8), as they boarded and undocked their Soyuz from the station’s Prichal module. Their departure at 8:41 p.m. EST (0141 GMT Tuesday) marked the formal end of Expedition 73 and the beginning of Expedition 74.

“What I think I’m going to remember most is the bond that we shared together, and after having spent eight months in space, I firmly believe that the greatest quality of an astronaut and a human is not technical competence or loyalty or any of the myriad of the things that we like to ascribe to astronauts, it’s love,” said Kim during a brief change-of-command ceremony on Sunday (Dec. 7). “I firmly believe that love is the greatest thing an astronaut can have for each other and for the people that they work with and for our lovely planet.”

“I think that’s what we accomplished here — we always gave each other grace and had so much love for each other and for the ground, for everyone that supports us, and I think that is what makes space exploration possible and human,” said Kim.

Still aboard the space station as the newly formed Expedition 74 crew are commander Mike Fincke and fellow NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Chris Williams, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev.

Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams arrived in late November, on a Soyuz launch that left Russia’s only launch pad capable of supporting flights to the station significantly damaged.

Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim, during their 245 days in low Earth orbit, conducted hundreds of science investigations and technology demonstrations, as well as contributed to the upkeep of the station and oversaw the arrival and departure of uncrewed cargo ships, including the first upgraded spacecraft from Northrop Grumman (Cygnus XL) and JAXA (HTV-X).

Ryzhikov and Zubritsky also conducted two spacewalks to install scientific experiments and relocate a controller for the European Robotic Arm on the exterior of the Russian segment of the station.

Ryzhikov, 51, was the only veteran on the Soyuz MS-27 crew and has now reached a total time in space that only 12 other people in history have exceeded.

“Now [that] I’m commander, my first thing to do is to celebrate something,” said Fincke on Sunday (Dec. 7). “Today is the 60th anniversary of Gemini 7, and that was a big deal for the American space program. They were going to go on a really long-duration mission of 14 days. And amongst us here, we have a man who’s flown for 600 days in space.”

Ryzhikov, who is a colonel in the Russian Air Force, previously served on the Expedition 50 and Expedition 64 crews in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

Zubritsky, 33, was the 630th person to fly into Earth orbit, according to the Registry of Space Travelers maintained by the Association of Space Explorers. Kim, 41, who inspired memes given his prior careers as a U.S. Navy SEAL and medical doctor, was the 631st person to orbit Earth. (Ryzhikov became number 548 when he launched on his first flight in 2016.)

Soyuz MS-27 was Russia’s 73rd spacecraft in its class to launch for the station since 2000 and the 156th Soyuz to fly since 1967.