NASA astronaut Don Pettit, the oldest person to return to Earth in a spacecraft, celebrated his 70th birthday in a unique way—by completing a seven-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Pettit, along with Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ochinin and Ivan Vagner, landed safely in Kazakhstan on Sunday inside a Soyuz capsule. The spacecraft touched down near Zhezkazgan at 4:20 a.m. Moscow time, as confirmed by Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.
During their 220-day mission, the crew orbited Earth 3,520 times and traveled an incredible 93.3 million miles. This was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight, adding to his already impressive 18 months spent in orbit over his 29-year career.
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After landing, rescue teams quickly helped the astronauts out of the capsule and into an inflatable medical tent for check-ups. NASA reported that Pettit, despite some expected physical effects from space travel, was in good health.
The crew will now fly to Karaganda before heading to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. During their time on the ISS, they conducted experiments on water purification, plant growth in space, and how fire behaves in microgravity.
