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NASA’s oldest energetic astronaut returns to Earth on his seventieth birthday


This handout picture courtesy of NASA shows the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard, on April 20, 2025. | Photo by Bill INGALLS / NASA / AFP

This handout image courtesy of NASA reveals the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is seen because it lands in a distant space close to the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard, on April 20, 2025. | Photograph by Invoice INGALLS / NASA / AFP

WASHINGTON, United StatesCake, items and a low-key household celebration could also be what number of senior residents image their seventieth birthday.

However NASA’s oldest serving astronaut Don Pettit grew to become a septuagenarian whereas hurtling in the direction of the Earth in a spacecraft to wrap up a seven-month mission aboard the Worldwide House Station (ISS).A Soyuz capsule carrying the American and two Russian cosmonauts landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday, the day of Pettit’s milestone birthday.

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“As we speak at 0420 Moscow time (0120 GMT), the Soyuz MS-26 touchdown craft with Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit aboard landed close to the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan,” Russia’s house company Roscosmos mentioned.

Spending 220 days in house, Pettit and his crewmates Ovchinin and Vagner orbited the Earth 3,520 occasions and accomplished a journey of 93.3 million miles over the course of their mission.

It was the fourth spaceflight for Pettit, who has logged greater than 18 months in orbit all through his 29-year profession.

This hanodut picture courtesy of NASA shows NASA astronaut Don Pettit (C)  being carried to a medical tent shortly after he, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner landed in their Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on April 20, 2025. The trio are returning to Earth after logging 220 days in space as a members of Expeditions 71 and 72 aboard the International Space Station. | Photo by Bill INGALLS / NASA / AFP

This hanodut image courtesy of NASA reveals NASA astronaut Don Pettit (C) being carried to a medical tent shortly after he, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner landed of their Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft close to the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on April 20, 2025. The trio are returning to Earth after logging 220 days in house as a members of Expeditions 71 and 72 aboard the Worldwide House Station. | Photograph by Invoice INGALLS / NASA / AFP

The trio touched down in a distant space simply over three hours after undocking from the house station.

NASA pictures of the touchdown confirmed the small capsule parachuting all the way down to Earth with the dawn as a backdrop.

READ: NASA astronauts return to Earth after drawn-out mission in house

The astronauts gave thumbs-up gestures as rescuers carried them from the spacecraft to an inflatable medical tent.

Regardless of trying a little bit worse for put on as he was pulled from the vessel, Pettit was “doing nicely and within the vary of what’s anticipated for him following return to Earth,” NASA mentioned in a press release.

He was then set to fly to the Kazakh metropolis of Karaganda earlier than boarding a NASA aircraft to the company’s Johnson House Heart in Texas.

The astronauts spent their time on the ISS researching areas equivalent to water sanitization expertise, plant progress in varied circumstances and hearth conduct in microgravity, NASA mentioned.

The trio’s seven-month journey was simply wanting the 9 months that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams unexpectedly spent caught on the orbital lab after the spacecraft they have been testing suffered technical points and was deemed unfit to fly them again to Earth.

House is among the remaining areas of US-Russia cooperation amid an nearly full breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine battle.



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