Dan Pettit, the oldest serving U.S. astronaut, reentered Earth history. He marked his 70th birthday this week, having spent a staggering 220 days within the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz MS-26 space capsule, carrying Pettit and his Russian crewmates, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, successfully landed in Kazakhstan’s steppe at 06:20 local time (01:20 GMT) on Sunday. As his fourth journey to the ISS, this mission only continued to strengthen Pettit’s legacy in space exploration.
Pettit was born in Oregon on April 20, 1955. He has an incredible 590 days spent in space after just four missions. He made history aboard the ISS as he witnessed the station orbiting below him 3,520 times. His total years of experience and passion for his work have led him to earn the acclaim of his fellows as a giant in the field of astronautics.
After landing, Pettit will be flown to Houston, Texas, for debrief and rehabilitation. In the meantime, his crewmates, Ovchinin and Vagner will make their way to Russia’s main space training base in Zvyozdniy Gorodok, near Moscow. Yet this transition signals the end of a deeply influential chapter in Pettit’s career. It’s a symbol of the amazing history of cooperation that continues today between NASA and Russian space agencies.
Pettit’s return nearly a year to the day since he and his fellow astronauts blasted off to the ISS last June of 2024. But technical problems on their spacecraft pushed back their return until March 18 of this year. Despite these challenges, Pettit remained focused on his mission objectives and contributed to numerous scientific experiments during his extended stay in microgravity.
Senator John Glenn’s three-orbit flight around the Earth in 1962 was a historic, national success as America’s first orbital flight. Incredibly, he flew to space again at age 77 on a NASA shuttle flight in 1998, breaking the record at that time for the oldest person to fly in orbit. Though Glenn famously died in 2016, his legacy of public service and exploration lives on through the many astronauts, for example, whom he inspired.
