I had heard of Jonny Kim and his amazing accomplishments, including his training to be an astronaut, but now it’s official:
“Graduating from Harvard Medical School and being a part of the Navy SEALs must not have been enough accomplishments for Jonny Kim. The 35-year-old is now the first Korean-American to become a NASA astronaut.
Kim, along with 12 others, graduated last week from NASA’s Artemis program, allowing the astronauts to be eligible to participate in missions to the International Space Station, to the moon and even Mars.
After he graduated high school in Los Angeles, Kim joined the Navy as a Seaman recruit, which eventually led him to obtain the elite military status of a Navy SEAL. He served as a combat medic, sniper, and navigator on more than 100 combat operations across two deployments to the Middle East, NASA said.
Kim went on to earn his degree in mathematics at the University of San Diego and a doctorate of medicine at Harvard Medical School. At the time of his astronaut candidacy selection in June 2017, Kim was a resident physician at a hospital in Massachusetts, according to NASA.”
Prior to Kim, the most impressive Asian American, at least on “paper” that I had read about (and eventually got to meet) was Yul Kwon, winner of Survivor.
2017 NASA Astronaut Candidate – Jonny Kim. Photo Date: June 6, 2017. Location: Ellington Field – Hangar 276, Tarmac. Photographer: Robert Markowitz
Here’s Kim’s official NASA bio page. I’m looking forward to Kim getting into space!
