WASHINGTON, D.C. — NASA astronaut Jonny Kim is currently in Star City, Russia, preparing for his Tuesday, April 8, launch to the International Space Station, his first spaceflight.  

Kim will blast off to space in a Soyuz spacecraft alongside two cosmonauts. The space partnership between the U.S. and Russia has transcended, despite ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

"When it comes to collaboration with our Russian colleagues, at the end of the day, we're all humans doing our part, trying to make this world a better place. And, that's no different with my friends, that I get to go to space with my Russian cosmonauts. And so it's a huge honor to not only be a representative for America, but an ambassador between our two nations," Kim said. 

Kim has been gearing up for this moment for years. He has recently been doing strength training, spacewalk training, and survival training. Soon he will enter a quarantine ahead of the launch from Kazakhstan, and serve eight months aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer.

He hopes to do a spacewalk and will do maintenance and science experiments. One ongoing experiment is called CIPHER, to study the long-term effects of being in space on humans. 

"We hope … that all this data sharing and this integrated approach is going to answer a lot of questions that we need before we start committing ourselves to long duration, multi-year space flights to Mars and beyond," Kim said. 

Learn more about what is involved in space medicine and how NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara talks about her part in the CIPHER project.

Kim also said he was happy that his NASA colleagues Butch Willmore and Suni Williams safely returned home to Earth Tuesday.

"We all are used to public service and doing what's best for the mission and for the public, and it's always great to know that friends, people that I care about are finally home to see their loved ones," Kim said.