In brief
On his 70th birthday, America's oldest astronaut, Don Pettit, made a successful return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-26 capsule, landing in Kazakhstan's expansive steppe. The mission lasted 220 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), during which Pettit and his Russian colleagues orbited Earth 3,520 times. Having spent a cumulative total of 590 days in space throughout his four missions, Pettit, though not the oldest person ever to enter orbit— a record held by John Glenn—has made significant contributions to space exploration. As he acclimatizes back to gravity, he will travel to Houston, while his fellow cosmonauts will head to their training base near Moscow. The Soyuz landing comes in the wake of previous NASA missions that faced delays, highlighting the challenges of space travel.
