Instead of a typical birthday celebration, NASA astronaut Don Pettit marked his 70th birthday while returning to Earth after a seven-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Pettit, the oldest active astronaut in NASA’s ranks, landed in Kazakhstan early Sunday morning aboard the Soyuz MS-26 capsule, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.
The trio’s mission spanned 220 days, during which they orbited the Earth 3,520 times and traveled over 93 million miles. This was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight in his 29-year career, bringing his total time in space to over 18 months.
After undocking from the ISS, their capsule touched down near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. NASA released images showing a smooth parachute landing with the sunrise in the background. Medical teams quickly attended to the crew, who gave thumbs-up signs as they were helped out of the capsule.
Pettit is reportedly in good condition and is being transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas via Karaganda.
During their mission, the astronauts conducted research on water purification, plant biology in space, and fire behavior in microgravity. Despite rising tensions between the US and Russia over the war in Ukraine, their collaboration on the ISS remains one of the last areas of bilateral cooperation.