NASA Astronaut Tracy C.
Dyson, Crewmates Return from Space Station
Sep 23, 2024 RELEASE 24-122
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, return to Earth after completing their
mission to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson completed a six-month research mission aboard the International Space Station on Monday, returning to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and
Nikolai Chub.
The trio departed the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft at 4:36 a.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 23, making a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 7:59 a.m. (4:59 p.m. Kazakhstan
time), southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
While aboard the orbiting laboratory, Dyson conducted multiple scientific and technology activities including the operation of a 3D bioprinter to print cardiac tissue samples, which
could advance technology for creating replacement organs and tissues for transplants on Earth. Dyson also participated in the crystallization of model proteins to evaluate the performance of hardware that could be used for pharmaceutical production and ran
a program that used student-designed software to control the station’s free-flying robots, inspiring the next generation of innovators.
Dyson launched on March 23 and arrived at the station March 25 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and
Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.
Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s third spaceflight covered 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles as an Expedition 70/71 flight engineer. Dyson also conducted
one spacewalk of 31 minutes, bringing her career total to 23 hours, 20 minutes on four spacewalks.
Kononenko and Chub, who launched with O’Hara to the station on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft last September, spent 374 days in space on a trip of 158.6 million miles, spanning 5,984 orbits.
Kononenko completed his fifth flight into space, accruing a record of 1,111 days in orbit, and Chub completed his first spaceflight.
Following post-landing medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Dyson will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on
X, as well as the ISS
Facebook, ISS
Instagram, and the space station blog.
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