NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson Adds Three Months to Record-Breaking Mission
Peggy Whitson aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Already poised to break the record for cumulative time spent in space by a U.S. astronaut, Peggy Whitson is set to extend her mission with an additional three months at the International Space Station.
NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, signed an agreement to extend Peggy Whitson’s stay on the space station into Expedition 52. Rather than returning to Earth with her Expedition 51 crew mates Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency), in June as originally planned, Whitson will remain on the space station and return home with NASA’s Jack Fischer and Roscosmos’ Fyodor Yurchikhin. That landing is targeted for September.
“This is great news,” Whitson said. “I love being up here. Living and working aboard the space station is where I feel like I make the greatest contribution, so I am constantly trying to squeeze every drop out of my time here. Having three more months to squeeze is just what I would wish for.”
The arrangement takes advantage of a Soyuz seat left empty by the Roscosmos decision to temporarily reduce their crew complement to two cosmonauts. Whitson’s extension will ensure a full complement of six astronauts on board the station and increase the amount of valuable astronaut time available for experiments on board the station.
“Peggy’s skill and experience makes her an incredible asset aboard the space station,” said Kirk Shireman, NASA’s International Space Station Program Manager. “By extending the stay of one of NASA’s most veteran astronauts, our research, our technology development, our commercial and our international partner communities will all benefit.”
This is Whitson’s third long-duration stay onboard the space station. She launched on Nov. 17 with 377 days in space already under her belt, and on April 24 will break Jeff Williams’ standing United States record of 534 cumulative days in space. In 2008, Whitson became the first woman to command the space station, and on April 9 will become the first woman to command it twice. In addition, she holds the record for most spacewalks by a female.
Follow Whitson’s stay on the space station via social media at:
https://www.twitter.com/AstroPeggy
https://www.facebook.com/NASAastronautPeggyWhitson
Learn more about the space station and its crews at:
4 responses to “NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson Adds Three Months to Record-Breaking Mission”
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I’m glad to see NASA taking advantage of Russia’s decreased presence on the ISS. And, with such a veteran ISS resident to boot.
This will put her at number 1 all-time for the longest single spaceflight for a woman, and give her the number 7 slot for longest single spaceflight! She will also further extend her lead for the longest cumulative spaceflight time for a woman – double that of the runner-up, Sunita Williams’ 321 days 🙂
Russia has always prided itself on maintain those records for both genders. It’ll be interesting to see if they try to take it back.
The current number 1 for cumulative is Gennady Padalka, who has spent 879 days in space over 5 missions, he will be flying again in 2018, and on that mission he’ll surpass 1,000 days cumulative, may come close to 1,100. There are a couple others who could approach that. If there are a few more 1-year (ish) stays on the ISS we could see more records broken and set!