Record-breaking Peggy Whitson lands back on Earth

Whitson's 665 cumulative days in space are the most of any Nasa astronaut in history

Peggy Whitson
(Image credit: Nasa)

American astronaut Peggy Whitson has returned to Earth safely after spending a record-breaking length of time in space.

Whitson landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday following a 288-day mission on the International Space Station (ISS), which Nasa says brings her total time in orbit to 665 days - a new record for a US astronaut.

See more

At 57 years old, The Guardian says Whitson also claims a place in history as the “world’s oldest spacewoman” and “the first woman to command the space station twice following her launch last November”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

During her most recent visit to space, Nasa says Whitson was tasked with researching “the physical changes to astronauts' eyes caused by prolonged exposure to a microgravity environment”.

Other studies included the effects that a low-gravity environment has on stem cells, as well as an investigation “that could increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs for cancer treatment”.

Whitson told Nasa that she is “not overly comfortable with the praise about the records”, but said “it is critical that we are continuously breaking records, because that represents us moving forward in exploration”.

She added: “I am working on paying forward some of the advice and mentoring that I received on my journey, in hopes that one day those young people will do the same and look back on a life in which they leapt at the opportunities and broke their own records.”

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka is the world record holder for days spent in space, says The Independent, clocking up 879 days in orbit over the course of five missions.

Another Russian cosmonaut, Valery Polyakov, holds the record for "the longest single stay in space", at 437 days and 18 hours.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.