NASA Will Welcome Home Six Space Station Astronauts After 241-Day Mission

NASA will hold a public homecoming event for the Expedition 74 crew at Space Center Houston at 6 p.m. CST on Tuesday, Nov. 17, the agency announced. Six astronauts and cosmonauts from the International Space Station mission will share highlights at NASA Johnson Space Center's visitor center, and an awards ceremony recognizing key mission contributors will follow.

Taking part are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.

How the crew got home

The crew returned in two groups. According to NASA, the dates were:

• Nov. 27, 2025: Williams, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev launched on the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
• Feb. 13: Meir, Hathaway and Adenot launched on a Dragon spacecraft as part of SpaceX Crew-12 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
• July 26: The Soyuz trio made a parachute-assisted landing southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
• Oct. 8: Meir, Hathaway and Adenot splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles.

Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev also flew on Crew-12 but is unavailable for the event, NASA said.

The mission in numbers

The Soyuz crew spent 241 days in space, orbiting Earth 3,856 times and traveling more than 102 million miles. It was the first mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud-Sverchkov.

The Crew-12 astronauts spent more than seven months aboard the station. Their 237-day mission covered more than 100 million miles and more than 3,792 orbits. It was the second flight for Meir and the first for Hathaway and Adenot.

What the crew worked on

NASA said the crew devoted more than 1,400 hours to research and technology demonstrations. The work included testing metal and tissue 3D-printing technologies, and human health studies on the effects of long-duration spaceflight, such as blood flow studies and assessments of piloting capabilities under changing gravity. The crew also activated a new compact exercise system and evaluated life-support and environmental systems that NASA considers critical for future missions under its Artemis program.

In pharmaceutical research, the astronauts crystallized proteins for cancer medications, advanced tumor-targeting treatments and grew stem cells for therapeutics. They also cared for the first set of plants studied outside of curated systems, upgraded an instrument used to study matter and develop quantum technologies, managed visiting spacecraft and performed maintenance on the orbiting laboratory.

What it means for the public

The Nov. 17 presentation is a public event, so people near Houston can hear directly from the crew. NASA also said the astronauts will be available for media interviews beforehand; reporters who want an in-person interview must request one by 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 16.

More broadly, NASA said people have lived and worked continuously aboard the space station for more than 26 years. The agency says the research helps it overcome the challenges of human spaceflight, expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit and lay groundwork for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by NASA

Cover photo: Shujianyang / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped