America’s oldest serving astronaut, Dan Pettit, celebrated his 70th birthday by returning to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft. The vehicle, carrying Pettit along with Russian crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, executed a successful parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan's vast steppe at 06:20 local time (01:20 GMT) on Sunday.
During their 220 days onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the crew orbited the Earth an impressive 3,520 times. With this mission, Pettit has accumulated a total of 590 days in space throughout his career, making it his fourth expedition. However, he is not the oldest individual to have flown in orbit; that distinction goes to John Glenn, who was 77 during his Nasa mission in 1998 and passed away in 2016.
Post-landing, Pettit and his fellow astronauts will take some time to readjust to Earth's gravity. Following this period, Pettit will travel to Houston, Texas, while Ovchinin and Vagner will head to Russia’s primary space training center in Zvyozdniy Gorodok, also known as Star City. Before their departure from the ISS, the crew transferred command of the spacecraft to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.
In related news from last month, two Nasa astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, returned to Earth after an extended stay of over nine months aboard the ISS, far exceeding their original eight-day plan. They had traveled to the ISS in June 2024, but technical difficulties with their spacecraft delayed their return until March 18 of this year.
