PEACHTREE CITY, USA – For Asian and Pacitic Islander Heritage Month, Aventure would like to highlight Jonny Kim, a NASA astronaut, former Navy SEAL, and U.S. naval aviator and flight surgeon. He made history last year as the first Korean-American to complete a mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Kim was born on February 5, 1984 in Los Angeles to South Korean immigrants. He decided to become a Navy SEAL at age 16, investing his remaining high-school years physically conditioning himself for the rigors of training. He enlisted after graduating from Santa Monica High School in 2002. He deployed twice to the Middle East and participated in over 100 combat missions as a combat medic, sniper, navigator, and point man.
While in the Navy, Kim received a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in mathematics from the University of San Diego in 2012, and a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School in 2016.
Kim completed his first solo flight in a Beechcraft T-6 Texan II at the Naval Air Training Command on June 6, 2022. After further training on the Northrop T-38 Talon and TH-57 helicopter, he formally completed his flight training in March 2023 at Naval Air Station Whiting Field.
On December 9, 2020, NASA announced that Kim would join 17 other astronauts in training for early Moon landing missions of the Artemis program. In August 2024, NASA announced he would be a member of the Expedition 72/73 crew to the ISS.
The Expedition 72/73 crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft on April 8, 2025, and docked with the ISS three hours and ten minutes later. Kim was tasked to conduct scientific research in technology development, Earth science, biology, human research, and more. He returned to Earth on December 9, 2025.
Driven by service and guided by science, Jonny Kim’s extraordinary path is an inspiration for us all.
