NASA welcomes Expedition 74 astronauts home after 200-day mission

NASA will welcome the Expedition 74 crew home at Space Center Houston on Sunday, after they returned from a 200‑day stay aboard the International Space Station. The ceremony will feature NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud‑Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will be open to the public, with live streaming for those who cannot attend in person.

The crew’s return marks the end of a mission that began in September 2023, when the five astronauts launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Their stay on the station was the longest continuous mission in history for a crew of this size, lasting 200 days. The mission carried out a series of experiments in biology, materials science, and human health, and also tested new tools for future lunar and Mars missions. The timing of the return comes after a busy year for the ISS, which has been a staging ground for international collaboration and a testbed for technologies that could be used on the Artemis lunar program.

During the ceremony, NASA officials will review the crew’s accomplishments. Meir, the first woman from the U.S. to walk on the moon, will speak about her experience in microgravity, while Hathaway will discuss the station’s robotic arm operations. ESA’s Adenot will highlight the European Space Agency’s contributions to the mission, including a new life‑support system. Russian cosmonauts will talk about the role of the Soyuz spacecraft and the Roscosmos partnership. The event will also feature a brief video montage of the crew’s time in space, including footage of Earth from the station and the crew’s daily routines.

After the welcome, the astronauts will undergo a debriefing with NASA and partner agency scientists. Their data will be analyzed for insights into long‑term spaceflight effects on the human body, which is critical for planning missions to Mars. The crew will also participate in a press conference that day, where they will answer questions about their experiments and share stories from their time on the station. Their return underscores the importance of international cooperation in space and the continued role of the ISS as a laboratory for scientific discovery and technological innovation.