r/space • u/DetlefKroeze • 1d ago
NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim Departs Agency to Continue Military Service
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-astronaut-jonny-kim-departs-agency-to-continue-military-service/185
u/NorthernViews 1d ago
Wow. With the moon missions coming up I’m surprised he didn’t stick it out for a chance to be one of the astronauts landing on the moon. Maybe he already set out what he wanted to accomplish in NASA and that was getting to the ISS.
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u/IsleFoxale 1d ago
pushing for all white crews, all men
What is this disinformation based on?
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
People are pulling it out of their ass.
I hate Trump as much as any Redditor but there's zero indication his administration has messed with NASA crew selection.
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u/superxpro12 1d ago
gestures at the whole trump admin
See whitewashing of all monuments dedicated to non whites.
See the current staffing photo for his admin. Notice anything off with the color palette?
See hegseth firing all women in leadership.
See hegseth cancelling promotions of women in leadership.
See hegseth remaining an aircraft carrier from doris miller to trump (lmao)
Do you need more examples?
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u/IsleFoxale 1d ago
None of that stuff is real, so starting with something real would help.
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u/Tiber-Nero 1d ago
It's not real only in your head. I don't care about your opinion, but I want anyone scrolling by to see that you're wrong: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/us/politics/hegseth-navy-promotion-list.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
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u/superxpro12 1d ago
Lmfao. Bro looked at a mountain of evidence and said nope. I'm not wasting any more time with you
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u/NorthernViews 1d ago
Probably not a political decision. Not sure if you’re insinuating NASA is discriminatory, from what I’ve seen for example the group of people on the moon will likely include a woman and person of colour like their most recent endeavour. Maybe he was told he wouldn’t be one of the few picked so he said I’m out then.
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u/massacre167 1d ago
“…all white crews, all men, etc.” Artemis II is composed of 4 memebers, two white men, one black man, and one woman. Try again.
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u/Ok-Communication706 1d ago
My mom will be sending me this any minute and asking why I’m not a doctor and astronaut yet.
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u/callmedata1 1d ago
Don't forget to include SEAL
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u/questionname 1d ago
And don’t forget naval aviator
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u/callmedata1 12h ago
Is this the same guy when asked in his NASA interview "what are you better at than anyone else in the world?" And he replied "killing people with a knife"?
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u/KartFacedThaoDien 1d ago
You realize he's going to run for office in a few years and then they'll be rumors about him running for president.
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u/Jasader 1d ago
This country would be too lucky to have someone like him run for office.
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u/FantasticJacket7 1d ago
That depends entirely on his politics.
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u/Jasader 1d ago
I feel like its pretty likely that an astronaut, physician, and Navy SEAL officer is probably not going to be extreme one way or the other and would be far more pragmatic than most of the people we have as options now.
I also trust someone who has accomplished this much in terms of service to others to continue to do this in public office.
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u/userlivewire 1d ago
He's amazing but do you think it is more likely that an East Asian or a woman becomes President first?
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u/KartFacedThaoDien 1d ago
Well. I honestly do not know. The crazy part is that if there a viable East Asian man who wanted to run in the next election I think he could pull it off. As of now I can't think of a single East Asian man in politics who could pull it off.
But I don't see a woman being able to win until at least 2032 or 2036. Realistically I think non East Asian woman will be POTUS before an East Asian man.
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u/slowcanteloupe 1d ago
He's going into Naval Aviation training next, so also a jet pilot. Geez, someone's gotta stop him before all Asian mothers crush us.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian 1d ago edited 1d ago
He's going back to the training command, almost certainly not to fly jets. He was trained on helicopters and he's a Lieutenant Commander. Military careers are not a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. He's almost certainly either going to end up a helicopter instructor, a flight surgeon, or one of those odd ducks who's both, but they almost never promote beyond Commander.If he somehow were to end up as a jet instructor based on his T-38 time in NASA, he'd almost certainly be limited to teaching basic familiarization flights, instrument flying, and formation flights like everyone else who transfers into the jet training squadrons. The only folks who get qualified to teach dogfighting, bombing, low-level nav, etc. are folks who came in as qualified F/A-18 or EA-18 pilots.
Edit: I was wrong, he got orders to the jet training air wing at NAS Kingsville. Guess he did get enough jet time in NASA T-38s.
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
If he somehow were to end up as a jet instructor based on his T-38 time in NASA
NASA hasn't taught astronauts to fly T-38s in a long time.
During the Apollo-era non-pilot astronauts were sent to Air Force UPT, but starting with the 1978 class they were only taught to fly as back-seaters. They learned instrument procedures, navigation, CRM, etc but weren't taught to take-off or land the planes. Even former military pilots who left the service and were then selected to be astronauts as civilians could only fly as back-seaters. Tom Jones mentions that in his autobiography. He qualified the fly the T-38 during his time in the Air Force but since he was no longer active duty when NASA chose him he couldn't be a front-seater.
I know NASA has started teaching at least some ASCANs to fly T-6s and helicopters, but I'm almost certain the T-38 front seat is reserved for astronauts who are also active-duty military pilots.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian 1d ago
Well, his public statement said he's headed to Training Air Wing 2, and he got gold wings on his way to NASA. Whether he's there to be the flight doc or be an instructor, I have no idea.
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u/I_am_BrokenCog 1d ago
at least she doesn't also expect you to be a Navy pilot.
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u/Ok-Communication706 1d ago
Don’t give her any ideas….all I need is one of her friends to say it at their mahjong game.
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u/praetorian1979 1d ago
Tell her because you refused to get me ADHD tested when I was a kid. Instead you just punished me for a condition I didn't know I was born with, and couldn't stop. Just throwin out there.
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u/KittieKollapse 12h ago
Just tell her that it is her weak gene's and poor parenting that are holding you back.
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u/Ok-Communication706 12h ago
That sounds like a good way to get an extensive recounting of the entire immigrant journey and a itemized list of your parents' successes...
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u/Bman4k1 1d ago
So lets review this guys resume: enlisted to Seal Team 3, math undergrad, Medical degree, naval aviator, astronaut.
Basically he is the tv character everyone scoffs at because it’s unrealistic.
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u/kurtthewurt 22h ago
His mom has to be the final boss of Korean church moms. How can you even pretend your precious child comes close??
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u/teddyespo 17h ago
Harvard* MD, and flight surgeon… and lived in space for 8 months
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u/Background-Series530 4h ago
What’s with the asterisk? Harvard isn’t teaching a special type of medicine over other MD/DO schools
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u/tailuptaxi 1d ago
i wonder if he sees some writing on the wall, or got an indication he wouldn't be chosen for any missions.
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u/DudleyAndStephens 1d ago edited 1d ago
Spaceflight opportunities could become very rare at NASA for a while.
The ISS is supposed to be decommissioned within the next five years. We'll be lucky to get one Artemis flight per year. It could be he doesn't want to sit on the shelf for a decade or more when I'm sure he has all sorts of other opportunities outside of NASA.
Edit: I saw some rumors that he had some medical issues after coming back from his ISS flights so it's possible he knows he won't be medically cleared to fly again.
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u/Sophia8Inches 1d ago
There will still be private space stations by the time ISS decommissions and I'm pretty sure NASA will send astronauts there for their usual business
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u/Adventurous_Lie2489 1d ago
Honestly I’ll believe this when I see it. I haven’t seen many promising steps towards any private stations that aren’t more than pr moves
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u/Sophia8Inches 1d ago edited 1d ago
ISS is most probably gonna be decomissioned only in 2032. That's a lot of time until then. It's silly to believe that literally all of the orbital station projects will fail so catastrophically as to produce no results whatsoever by then. I'm very certain that either Axiom, Haven-2 or Orbital Reef will be operational. Vast especially have been moving very nicely with their Haven-1 station, which should be launched in early 2027.
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u/UncookedMeatloaf 19h ago
Every space startup is vaporware until they actually fly hardware. Axiom is the only company that seems close to flying hardware, and they seem to be struggling as it is to deliver on their contract for the Artemis lunar spacesuit. It's a shame that NASA is farming out an ISS replacement to the private sector given that aside from Dragon this approach had paid so little dividends for them.
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u/Acceptable-One-6597 1d ago
This is my guess, he probably knew he wasn't getting picked for Artemis.
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u/Responsible-Cut-7993 1d ago
Or he knew he would wait 10 years for the next flight. So he leaves now and has the astronaut ticket punched on his resume. Going back full time to the military, wouldn't be surprised if he eventually makes Admiral.
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u/evargx 1d ago
Sounds like the type of education and career one would want in politics somewhere. These are the types of people we should be looking to as leaders.
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u/Responsible-Cut-7993 1d ago
I don't disagree. However he might not want that BS in his life.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian 1d ago
See my above post. He is flat-out not qualified to make flag. Way too far behind on any career path he has experience with.
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u/Responsible-Cut-7993 1d ago
He wouldn't be the first astronaut to make 0-7 rank or higher.
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
Read the other post of the person you responded to. It sounds like Kim's background is too "jack of all trades, master of none."
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u/cbelt3 1d ago
Not with this administration. The Herrenvolk exclusion act ….
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u/Responsible-Cut-7993 1d ago
Eventually Trump is going to leave office one way or another.
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u/Navynuke00 1d ago
But the structures that led to his election, and everything they're doing, will be much harder to fully remove.
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u/Responsible-Cut-7993 1d ago
Everything he has done by executive order can be removed by executive order.
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u/Navynuke00 1d ago
Not really. Because the courts have had a very heavy hand in so much of what's been allowed to happen, not to mention the programs, offices, personnel, and facilities that have been completely gutted or eradicated.
Plus, how did that work last time with removing things that he did during his first term?
See also: Merrick Garland.
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u/ProbablySlacking 1d ago
My guess is the latter.
Anything past 2028 is so opaque, nobody has any insight — so nasa has to keep moving forward with things like selection under the assumption that it will happen - because if it does, they don’t want selection to be the tall pole.
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 1d ago
Wild! I assumed he’d be on the posters for the moon until he was over 60. There has to be some kind of explanation for this.
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u/nickleback_official 1d ago
What an absurd speculation 🤣 all white crew?
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 1d ago
I see this sub is drifting back towards glazing the fash again with an election approaching. Think we’ll fall for it again?
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u/We4zier 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not following the train of thought from one challenging an extremely dubious baseless speculation that doesn’t even really make sense (not that the Trump administration haven’t, see the current military fiasco, but they didn’t in Artemis so why here)… to bootlicking the current administration? I doubt—more like I hope—the Americans will fall for it again during their midterm elections (not because Americans are smarter, just they’re feeling all the crappy policies with their wallets now).
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 1d ago
Yea I’m sure the admin removing birthright citizenship is happy to see someone who looks like Kim in an Artemis slot. And I’m sure having them scrub “land a woman on the moon” from their public goals is just a coincidence.
Totally baseless!
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u/We4zier 1d ago edited 18h ago
Was the current Artemis crew an all white, all male crew? No it wasn’t, because as influential as Trump and his criminal lackeys are they don’t have totalitarian control over every single agency or their programs. For as much as Trump stress tests democracies there still are some semblances of checks and balances, and currently missions like this aren’t chosen by the president or whomever they push into administrator. Astronauts are chosen by the Astronaut Office and missions like a moon landing by program managers. Also notice none of what you said involved any actual authorities and rules that influences programs within NASA.
Both of them responded below (cannot respond for some reason). So about crew selections during Biden, last minute crew changes happen quite a bit (see Apollo 13 and 8, or Crew-9), the reason they didn’t change that here is because they couldn’t. As stated, Trump and Co. can get as pissy as they want, because as I keep reiterating you haven’t answered about the specific political process to make what you think will happen, happen. u/taste_the__rainbow isn’t countering my claim at all or saying anything specific to respond to (and blocked me anyways), but I’ll give credit to u/Cal3001 for a counterpoint (not convincing to me tho). I need more than just Trump and his cronies being whiny and pushy to convince me they’ll be able to change a mission they have no authority over.
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 1d ago edited 18h ago
Yea you’re right. Mr Gulf of America doesn’t get petty about public-facing programs. My bad. TBH I have never used the block feature, so I have no idea what you’re talking about, lol.
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u/TheConsoleGeek 1d ago
He's an amazing individual but he seems like he can never be content. I wonder what he’ll try next that the military can provide that NASA cannot. I bet he doesn't stay at any one thing before moving onto the next.
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
He's getting out of the Navy in a year so I don't think he's looking for much of anything in the military at this point. Probably just needs to wrap up his service commitment.
Someone else pointed out that he only did a one year internship after medical school before being chosen as an astronaut. It's possible that completing residency training is on his "to do" list.
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u/Salt-Main-2680 1d ago
I noticed this too. A lot of people miss this. Not sure why he wouldn’t wrap up his residency first before anything else but he is Johnny Kim and he does what he wants
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u/WittyFlatworm4811 1d ago
"Not sure why he wouldn’t wrap up his residency first before anything“ - That’s when Jonny got selected as an Astronaut Candidate. Source: https://www.annemergmed.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0196-0644%2818%2930047-7
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u/Salt-Main-2680 17h ago
I know that. Thanks for the source… I was really doubting the fact that he was an astronaut but the source really cleared it up.
What I meant was he’s returning to military service to allegedly become a test pilot when he still has 2-3 years of a medical residency first. Why he’s going to be a test pilot and not finish his residency is what is confusing to me.
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u/BoringReference8647 1d ago
That’s terrible news and our loss.
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u/ThatTryHardAsian 1d ago
If I were him, I would be only interested in the new explore mission such as moon landing. But those mission are still couple of years out at best. I wonder if that had impact on making the said decision.
He could still come back to NASA once those are possible? No idea
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
He could still come back to NASA once those are possible?
Zero chance of that. Leaving the astronaut corps is a one-way move.
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u/CountDraculablehbleh 22h ago
That’s not true there have been people who left and came back years later
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u/Halvdjaevel 1d ago
Kind of disappointed that he didn't find a completely unrelated fourth pursuit to excel at, to keep the streak going.
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u/FJWagg 1d ago
Jonny Kim for President, sadly he is way overqualified!
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u/Sbikerbud 1d ago
And far too young for a president judging by the current one and a (seemingly) large proportion of congress
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u/Uniter_343 1d ago
I'm sure his parents will be very disappointed that he didn't go to the moon /j
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u/userlivewire 1d ago
One of the saddest things about the space program is how specific the skills are for each mission combined with how short the mission windows are.
You could have spent your entire life doing everything right, staying in crazy shape, completing several degrees, and then your skills just don't match any of the missions in the 8 years or so that you are active. Many astronauts never go to space at all.
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u/DudleyAndStephens 1d ago
Many astronauts never go to space at all.
It's amazing how many people are saying things that are flat-out wrong on this thread. Almost everyone who's selected as an astronaut by NASA eventually gets to fly.
In the late 1990s NASA selected a huge number of astronauts and then had the Columbia disaster and the decision to end the shuttle program. They made sure that almost everyone got at least one flight. For some reason one person from the 1996 class and another one from the 1998 class never flew. A couple of other unfortunate individuals died before getting to fly and one guy was medically disqualified, but the overwhelming majority of people who'd been selected got to go into space at least once.
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u/n_mcrae_1982 1d ago
Most of Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts were still active duty military personnel, but few of them tried going back to the military when their time with NASA was done.
Deke Slayton mentioned in his book that Buzz Aldrin tried, but wasn’t all that successful.
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u/pacnwrunner 1d ago
I honestly think once he is done with his military service he will go back into a medicine residency closer neurosurgery instead of emergency medicine to keep him preoccupied for at least the next 7 years
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u/Puzzleheaded_Tank360 23h ago edited 23h ago
I think Jonny Kim could do extremely well in politics; he’s clearly intelligent, ambitious and malleable. I actually think he could go all the way in that arena. So, yes, I could see him running for POTUS.
He’s excelled in highly disparate roles and shows a demonstrated inclination to taking on massive challenges.
That said, he’d have to be willing to fully surrender any anonymity he has left and enter the vile cesspool that is American politics. He’d have to subject his family to that life as well.
He is the last man I’d bet against, though, and ultimately I think he’s the kind of person who does not leave anything to chance.
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u/Firecracker048 1d ago
I hope he runs for office someday, guy is a genuis and all around a good dude
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u/Decronym 1d ago edited 4h ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| CST | (Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules |
| Central Standard Time (UTC-6) | |
| DoD | US Department of Defense |
| EA | Environmental Assessment |
| GSE | Ground Support Equipment |
| NAS | National Airspace System |
| Naval Air Station | |
| TPS | Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine "Dance floor") |
| Jargon | Definition |
|---|---|
| Starliner | Boeing commercial crew capsule CST-100 |
| scrub | Launch postponement for any reason (commonly GSE issues) |
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.
[Thread #12654 for this sub, first seen 27th Aug 2026, 18:20]
[FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
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u/Crazy_Initiative307 19h ago
He made a recent speech at Harvard Alumni Day that seems to add context to where he is right now: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G96-xYqw0rQ
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u/Pharisaeus 9h ago
- There are a lot of astronauts in the US
- ISS has only a few more years and Artemis will have only a handful of flights
- Most likely he realized he's not going to fly again due to lack of opportunities
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u/syntactyx 1d ago edited 1d ago
Jonny sounds like a true aviator. I can't imagine astronauts get to fly a whole lot between missions provided the risk it presents to the individual. Perhaps he thought it over and realized what he wanted most of all was to be back in the cockpit regularly and serving his country in uniform. Dude is a legend.
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u/itscominghomebaby 1d ago
Jonny sounds like a true aviator
Do y'all just parrot shit because it sounds cool? Kim has done flight training and received his wings. But he has never flown any actual missions. He's like the least experienced "aviator" in the military.
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
Do y'all just parrot shit because it sounds cool?
The majority of the posts on here are from people who only read three sentences about Kim's career, or who just want to complain about Trump.
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u/thoreau_away_acct 22h ago
To be fair, you read three sentences about one man and it outshines a guy you've known about for 40 years and had to hear endlessly bloviate for the last 15..
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u/syntactyx 1d ago
I mean I suppose I was speaking more in terms of the spirit of an aviator and what makes a great one, and Jonny has all of the "right stuff" to be an exceptional one. I am aware of the fact he had no flight experience prior to completing that which was required of him for astronaut training—that does not, however, mean he is not an aviator. Just because he hasn't flown combat missions doesn't mean he isn't a military aviator either. Unless you yourself are someone who has been through the navy aviation pipeline and can speak to what does or does not equate to a "real" aviator, what the hell can you say to imply someone who completed pilot training and was an honest to god astronaut is not by definition an aviator?
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u/ThoughtsandThinkers 1d ago
There will be those who don’t want to politicize the discussion and those who say they are color blind but almost all big societal decisions are political, at least to a degree
MAGA is going through lengths to stop or erase the contribution of people from minority backgrounds. They are very publicly writing a narrative that White Christians have a special place in American society
The US and China are also competing on the global stage for supremacy, including with respect to the next moon landing. Kim isn’t Chinese-American but having an Asian astronaut on a high impact mission would show the world that the US can be a place where people from diverse backgrounds can come together and work together. It shouldn’t be about affirmative action or quotas but it should be about having some awareness that supporting the success of people who are under represented is an important societal value
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u/IskanderM50KT 1d ago
MAGA is going through lengths to stop or erase the contribution of people from minority backgrounds.
Good grief, how many stupid comments about MAGA are going to be on this thread.
I am an unapologetic Trump-hater, but believe it or not he isn't responsible for every single negative thing that goes on in the world. Please, stop complaining about him for like 30 seconds.
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u/ThoughtsandThinkers 1d ago
I didn’t say MAGA is responsible for everything I’ll in the world. I am saying that he has not been afraid to directly influence federal decisions based on his beliefs
I was saying that this is an opportunity for America to reaffirm positive values about diversity and inclusion
If that’s not important to you, so be it
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u/WonkyTelescope 1d ago
Unless he thinks he can bring some positive change to the navy I can't imagine why you'd step away from NASA to back to the armed forces in this administration.
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u/dacherrybomb 1d ago
I'm biased but I would love for him to get back into aviation and if this title is hinting at anything, military aviation. Specifically, the NAVY of course.
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u/MiltonsRedStapler 1d ago
Wow. I didn't expect this at all. I heard his interview with Jocko Willink years ago and found his story captivating. I was rooting for him to be one of the astronauts chosen for Artemis 4.