Only a few folks have to fret about conducting experiments in orbit whereas amassing a Social Safety verify. However NASA astronaut Don Pettit is not like most individuals. He touched down on Sunday in Kazakhstan on Soyuz MS-26 after a seven-month keep on the Worldwide Area Station. It was undoubtedly a novel method for the 29-year area veteran to have fun his seventieth birthday. Pettit even bought to have fun his birthday twice. As a result of time zone distinction, it was nonetheless April 20 when Pettit flew again to Houston and arrived on the Johnson Area Heart.
Pettit launched into area final September, being part of the report whole of 19 people in area concurrently throughout Soyuz MS-26, the ISS, China’s Tiangong station and SpaceX’s Polaris Daybreak mission. Whereas Petit could be finest identified for his astrophotography, he carried out analysis to help future area missions. In keeping with NASA, the chemical engineer labored to enhance in-orbit metallic 3D printing and push water sanitization applied sciences, amongst different tasks. Pettit mentioned:
“I come alive after I’m in orbit. It is like my being must be in area. Some persons are born to be cowboys and journey a horse, I am born to journey a rocket and be in area.”
Pettit was certainly one of NASA’s most skilled astronauts ever
The mission wasn’t Pettit’s first rodeo. It was his fourth spaceflight. The previous Los Alamos scientist grew to become an astronaut in 1996 and made his first voyage to area in November 2002 on Expedition 6. The five-month mission to the ISS was prolonged by an extra two months after the Columbia catastrophe occurred in February 2003 and grounded the Area Shuttle fleet. Petit would return to the ISS in 2008 on a 15-day resupply mission and one other long-duration keep in 2011.
Pettit has spent 590 days in orbit over his profession, placing him third on the all-time record for Individuals. The one NASA astronauts forward of him are Peggy Whitson and Suni Williams. Whitson spent 675 days in area earlier than her retirement in 2018. Williams is presently 608 days after the Boeing Starliner debacle, which had her spend 9 months on the ISS.
Pettit could be NASA’s oldest lively astronaut, however John Glenn stays the oldest individual that NASA despatched to area. The sitting U.S. Senator volunteered to return to area in 1998 at 77 years outdated to assist the company research the consequences of getting older in area. It was Glenn’s second spaceflight, 36 years after he grew to become the primary American to orbit the planet.
