NASA Astronaut Tracy Dyson Lands Safely Back On Earth After Travelling 78 Million Miles In 184 Days

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson has safely landed back on Earth following her six-month mission in the International Space Station (ISS). Together with crew members, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, Dyson’s mission was successfully concluded by a parachute landing in Kazakhstan. The trio undocked from the ISS on September 23 aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.

Dyson was launched earlier this year on March 23 and reached the ISS within two days of the lift-off. She arrived at the station with Belarusian spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, together with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy.

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya, together with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, left the station on April 6 and returned to Earth after spending 12 days on board.

Her mission lasted 184 days and in that time she orbited the Earth 2,944 times and travelled more than 78 million miles. She also completed a 31-minute spacewalk. Her total spacewalk duration, spread across four spacewalks, was 23 hours and 20 minutes.

While on the space station, Dyson participated in the following major scientific experiments:

Worked on the 3D bioprinter facility to build the cardiac tissues and facilitate the development of organ transplantation.

Involved in the crystallisation of model proteins to assess pharma production equipment.

Supervised the program that utilises student-created software to operate autonomous flying machines on the ISS, with the goal of fostering future inventors.

Crewmates’ Achievements

Oleg Kononenko has conducted his fifth space mission setting a new record of 1,111 days in space.

On his first flight, Nikolai Chub had 374 days in space, covered 158.6 million miles and orbited the Earth 5,984 times.

Notably, Kononenko and Chub, who spent 374 days on the ISS, shattered all previous records for the longest stays on the station. Before them, NASA’s Frank Rubio and fellow cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin held the record with 371 days while they were stationed at the ISS from September 2022 to September 2023.

This makes Kononenko the most experienced spaceman currently.

On the other hand, following post-landing medical examinations, Dyson will board a NASA aircraft headed for the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.