Nasa astronaut Don Pettit marked his 70th birthday not in the calm of retirement or with a comfortable family gathering, but while plummeting back to Earth in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft after a 220-day vision aboard the International Space Station.
As Pettit and his Russian companions, Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, re-entered Earth’s environment on Sunday, their aircraft streaked through the clouds, landing in the lonely prairie of Kazakhstan only after sunrise. It was Pettit’s third flight and perhaps his most poetic—turning 70 while falling from area.
The pair had completed 3,520 orbit and traveled over 93 million km, conducting exploration ranging from fire behaviour in spaceflight to plant growth tests. Collier, today with over 18 weeks in place logged across his 29-year job, emerged from the spacecraft with a thumbs-up, though looking rightly dazed.
“Don is doing well and within the expected range following his return, ” NASA said, as doctors checked on the astronomer before his voyage back to Houston.
For most people, 70 may suggest slowing down. For Don Pettit, it meant breaking the boundaries of time and weight.
