JONNY KIM RETURNS TO NAVY
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jonny Kim poses for an official NASA portrait at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA announced Aug. 27, 2026, that Kim is leaving the agency and returning to active-duty Navy service. (NASA/Josh Valcarcel)
After nearly a decade at NASA and eight months aboard the International Space Station, former Navy SEAL Jonny Kim is leaving the space agency and returning to full-time military service.
NASA announced Thursday that Aug. 27 is Kim’s final day with the agency. The lieutenant commander will return to active duty to finish the remainder of his Navy career within naval aviation training.
Kim’s path to this point has been anything but typical.
He enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school in 2002, trained as a hospital corpsman and completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training before joining SEAL Team Three.
During more than 100 combat operations, Kim served as a medic, sniper, navigator and point man. His military decorations include the Silver Star and Bronze Star with Combat “V.”
Kim later became a commissioned naval officer through an enlisted-to-officer program, earned a mathematics degree from the University of San Diego and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.
He completed medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital before becoming both a naval aviator and flight surgeon.
NASA selected Kim as an astronaut in 2017.
He launched to the International Space Station aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft in April 2025 and spent eight months in orbit as a flight engineer during Expeditions 72 and 73.
During the mission, Kim orbited Earth 3,920 times and traveled nearly 104 million miles while participating in scientific research and space station operations.
He also served as the U.S. Operating Segment lead during the second half of Expedition 73 and operated the Canadarm2 robotic arm during the first capture of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft.
Kim returned to Earth in December 2025.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman praised Kim’s service, saying his work aboard the space station contributed to research that will help shape future missions.
Kim said serving NASA had been “the honor of a lifetime” and emphasized the importance of the people behind every mission.
“I look forward to carrying my commitment to service, my enduring love for space and technology, and the hard-earned lessons of this past decade into my next chapter,” Kim said.
That next chapter now takes him back to the Navy — adding another turn to a career that has already included service as a SEAL, combat medic, sniper, physician, naval aviator, flight surgeon and astronaut.
Source: NASA
(Source: OAF Nation)
