NASA’s oldest active astronaut will return to space in September for a six-month mission.
Don Pettit, 69, will go to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Roscosmos-led Soyuz MS-26 mission, which also includes Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.
Russian state media source TASS said this week that the launch date will be September 11. The NASA astronaut assignment, announced in May, will see Pettit make his fourth trip to space to add 370 days to his total days in space. His previous missions include Expedition 6 in 2003, the short space shuttle mission STS-126 in 2008 and Expedition 30/31 in 2012.
The launch of MS-26 will also be Ovchinin’s third flight, after Expeditions 47/48 and Expeditions 59/60, and Vagner’s second after Expedition 62/63.
Related: ‘Spaceborne’: Astronaut Don Pettit’s Amazing Space Photos (Gallery)
Pettit’s Expedition 6 mission was unexpectedly launched into orbit. He and the rest of the crew launched the space shuttle Endeavor on November 24, 2002, along with mission STS-113. Less than three months later, disaster struck. The Columbia Space Shuttle broke apart during its return on February 1, 2003, killing seven astronauts. Expedition 6 was unable to return to Earth aboard the shuttle Discovery as planned.
NASA grounded its shuttle fleet for two years to investigate the cause of the accident and find solutions. Although factors such as schedule pressures were cited in the Columbia Accident Investigation Board’s six-part report, the primary cause of the disaster was damage caused by a piece of foam that fell from a support on the shuttle’s external tank, causing the wing to collapse. of the spacecraft was damaged and it is vulnerable during the heat of reentry.
In the meantime, Pettit’s crew returned home safely on May 4, 2003 on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-1 after a rare landing malfunction that led to re-entry and retrieval problems. The problem – which was later determined to have a 1 in 7,000 chance of occurring – led to a glitch in the guidance system that caused the spacecraft to land about 250 miles (400 km) short of its planned landing site, the European Space Agency said.
During the reentry, the crew experienced eight times Earth’s gravity compared to the normal six. According to RussianSpaceWeb, they were also not picked up by helicopter for five hours, partly due to communication problems that led to uncertainty about their landing zone.
Pettit was selected by NASA in 1993 and will make his first flight into space in twelve years. His time in orbit includes two spacewalks, including 13 hours and 17 minutes in a space suit. One of his milestones during his spacewalks includes the installation of an ISS system that converts urine into drinking water, reducing the need for water transports from Earth. Pettit is also the first astronaut to launch SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft into orbit using the Canadarm2 robotic arm on May 25, 2012.
Pettit’s achievements also include patenting a zero-G coffee cup, witnessing a solar eclipse from space, capturing Venus’ historic transit of the Sun in 2012 from the ISS, and creating incredible timelapse photography from the window.
Although Pettit is NASA’s oldest active astronaut, several other professional astronauts in their 60s have flown to space, including retired NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson, 64, and Michael López-Alegría, 66, who now command missions with Houston-based Axiom Space. Also, even older individuals with ties or connections to an agency have flown to orbit in recent decades.
For example, retired NASA astronaut John Glenn flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95 in 1998 at the age of 77. Glenn, then a senator, served on the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. According to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, he made a proposal for NASA to fly himself to investigate how space travel is similar to aging.
Earlier this year, Ed Dwight flew into space at the age of 90 aboard a suborbital Blue Origin mission called NS-25, making him the oldest person to fly to space. Dwight was selected by then-President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to train at the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School. Because ARPS was a gateway to NASA’s astronaut corps at the time, Dwight was the first candidate for black astronauts in the United States, but NASA did not select him despite Air Force approval for spaceflight.
Another Blue Origin flight carried “Mercury 13” pioneer Wally Funk into space in 2021 at the age of 82. In the early 1960s, Funk was part of a group of female pilots who were privately assessed for their suitability to fly into space compared to NASA’s requirements for astronauts. at the time (the agency only flew male astronauts at the time, largely because it recruited from the male-dominated US military of the time). However, NASA did not approve the Mercury 13 program and eventually selected the first female astronaut candidates in 1978.