Dan Pettit, NASA's oldest serving astronaut, made an incredible return to Earth just in time to celebrate his 70th birthday! He and his Russian crewmates, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, landed safely in Kazakhstan at 06:20 local time (01:20 GMT) after spending an impressive 220 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During their time in space, they orbited Earth a whopping 3,520 times.
This marked Pettit's fourth mission, adding to his total of 590 days spent in the cosmos. However, he remains second in age among astronauts who’ve flown in orbit — the record goes to John Glenn, who journeyed into space at the age of 77 in 1998.
Now, it's time for Pettit and his fellow astronauts to readjust to life on solid ground. After some recuperation, they'll head off to their respective bases, with Pettit flying to Houston, Texas, and the Russian crew returning to Star City, near Moscow. Before leaving the ISS, they handed over command to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. Fun fact: just last month, two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, finally returned home after a record nine months on the ISS!
