NASA astronaut Don Pettit celebrated his 70th birthday in a spectacular fashion, by racing to Earth in a Soyuz capsule. The veteran spaceflyer just wrapped up a record-tying, seven-month-long mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). He safely reached Earth in Kazakhstan on Sunday morning, mere hours ahead of his milestone birthday celebration.
Pettit, on his fourth spaceflight, undocked from the ISS a little more than three hours before landing. He was joined by two Russian compatriots, cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Together, they made important advances aboard the ISS in fields such as water sanitation technology, growth of plants in diverse environments, and behavior of fire development in microgravity. This visionary mission was one of the last real outposts of U.S.-Russia cooperation. Especially notable was the deliverance, amidst the war in Ukraine worsening overall relations between the West and Moscow.
The Soyuz capsule parachuted down to Earth with a beautiful sunrise behind it. It came down in remote steppe southeast of KazaI’s Zhezkazgan. According to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, “Today at 0420 Moscow time (0120 GMT), the Soyuz MS-26 landing craft with Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit aboard landed near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan.”
Following his return, Pettit was reported to be “doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth,” according to NASA.
During his extensive 29-year career, Pettit has logged more than 18 months in orbit and completed a total of 220 days in space. His 350 orbits of the Earth counted down an extraordinary 93.3 million miles traveled on his missions.
Upon landing, Pettit was already getting ready for his next flight — to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. From there, he’d hop on a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. Ultimately, his return is a major personal celebration. It serves to emphasize the continued importance of international scientific collaboration despite our current geopolitical context.