Becoming an astronaut is a lifelong dream for many people, and only a very small few are able to make it into a lifelong career, so it stands to reason that those who manage to rise to the top do not want to give up their spot. After all, it is said that space is ensnaring and that once you are up, you do not want to come down. This might be the case of NASA’s oldest serving astronaut, Don Pettit, wo just came down from space after celebrating his 70th birthday.
There are many surprising aspects to this story, the first and foremost being that a 69 year old man was sent out to space, well, to the International Space Station (ISS), which still counts, for a seven month mission. Not many people remain working at that age, and even less in physically demanding jobs that can put their lives in danger, such as being an astronaut can.
The journey of Nasa’s oldest serving astronaut, Don Pettit
Pettit’s career has been an impressive one. A PHD in chemical engineering he was selected as a potential astronaut by NASA in 1996. His first mission was in 2002 and since then he has accumulated 590 days in space over more than 18 months, four flights and a 29 year career with the space agency. It is impressive on its own merits, but even more when we consider that he is the second oldest person to reach orbit, only behind legendary American astronaut John Glenn.
This last mission saw astronauts Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit spend 220 days in space, orbit the Earth 3,520 times and complete a journey of 93.3m miles across the seven months they were up in the ISS. Their mission was focused on researching areas such as water sanitization technology, plant growth under various conditions and fire behavior in microgravity according to reports from NASA, and unlike the mission of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, theirs did not suffer any unexpected delays or setbacks that would have required them to spend more time in space than originally planned for.
Their mission landed right on schedule, funnily enough on Pettit’s birthday in Kazakhstan, according to a statement from Russia’s space agency Roscosmos “Today at 0420 Moscow time (0120 GMT), the Soyuz MS-26 landing craft with Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit aboard landed near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan.” This happened right on schedule after departing from the ISS just three hours prior.
We were able to see plenty of images provided by NASA showing reentry to Earth, with the astronauts giving thumbs up signs to indicate that everything went well and that everyone was OK, which NASA later confirmed with a short statement regarding Pettit’s state saying that he was “doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth”.
The two Russians and Pettit were then seen by medical personnel and after dispatched to the Kazakh city of Karaganda where Pettit then boarded a NASA plane to the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Texas.
Also an inventor, Pettit is also the first proud owner of a patent made in space, thanks to his invention of a zero-g coffee cup, which used the wetting angle to carry fluid along a crease to allow drinking while avoiding the necessity of a straw.
There have been no announced retirement plans for this impressive individual, but we sure hope that his recuperation journey after this space trip is smooth and he has the opportunity to pursue whatever dreams he still has left, even if they involve going back up and continuing to do his job from space.