Jonny Kim, a Korean-American astronaut with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) next year. Kim is the first Korean American to become a NASA astronaut.
According to NASA on August 28, Kim will travel to the ISS next year March aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft, along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. The trio will spend eight months at the space station. Kim will serve as a flight engineer, conducting scientific investigations and technology demonstrations.
A Los Angeles native, Kim is a second-generation Korean American. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a naval aviator, flight surgeon, and Navy SEAL.
After his service, Kim went to the University of San Diego for his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and then to Harvard Medical School, where he received his medical degree in 2016 and practiced medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In 2017, Kim competed over 1,600 to 1 to become NASA’s newest astronaut candidate and was selected in 2020 after nearly two years of training in 2020.
BY HYESEON CHAE, HOONSIK WOO [chae.hyeseon@joongang.co.kr]
