On his 70th birthday, NASA's oldest active astronaut, Dan Pettit, has safely returned to Earth after a significant mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Oldest US Astronaut Returns Home on His 70th Birthday
Oldest US Astronaut Returns Home on His 70th Birthday
NASA's veteran astronaut Dan Pettit celebrates a milestone on his return from space.
The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft, carrying Pettit along with Russian astronauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, made a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan on Sunday at 06:20 local time (01:20 GMT). During their remarkable 220 days on the ISS, the crew orbited our planet 3,520 times, contributing valuable research and insights into extended space habitation.
Dan Pettit’s latest mission marks his fourth during a career that has now seen him spend a total of 590 days in space, although he is still not the oldest person to have flown in orbit, a record held by John Glenn, who orbited the Earth at 77 years of age in 1998.
Following their return, Pettit and his fellow astronauts will spend time readjusting to gravity. Pettit’s post-mission plans include returning to Houston, Texas, while Ovchinin and Vagner will head to Russia's primary space training base, Zvyozdniy Gorodok, near Moscow. Before departing the ISS, the crew transferred command to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.
In related news, last month, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams experienced an extended stay at the ISS—over nine months—due to technical issues, pushing their return to Earth well past the original eight-day plan set for their mission.
