Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 4 SepteMber 2017
Record-breaking Astronaut Peggy Whitson returns to Earth

By MARCIA DUNN Whitson was supposed to
AP Aerospace Writer fly back in June after a half-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. year in space.
(AP) — Astronaut Peggy But when an extra seat
Whitson returned to Earth opened up on this Soyuz,
late Saturday, wrapping she jumped at the chance
up a record-breaking flight to stay in orbit an extra
that catapulted her to first three months.
place for U.S. space endur- Only one other American
ance. — yearlong spaceman
Whitson’s 665 days off the Scott Kelly — has spent lon-
planet — 288 days on this ger in space on a single
mission alone — exceeds mission.
that of any other Ameri- Except for the past week,
can and any other woman Whitson said her mission
worldwide. hurried by.
She checked out of the In- She’s hungry for pizza and
ternational Space Station can’t wait to use a regular
just hours earlier, along with flush toilet again. She’s also
another American and a eager to reunite with her
Russian. husband, Clarence Sams, a
Their Soyuz capsule landed biochemist who also works
in Kazakhstan shortly after U.S. astronaut Peggy Annette Whitson smiles after landing in a remote area outside the town of at Johnson Space Center
sunrise Sunday — Saturday Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017. in Houston.
night back in the U.S. Associated Press Because of the effects of
ing 1,474 days of space- belongs to Russian Gen- Hurricane Harvey, NASA
flight experience with the nady Padalka, with 879 could not get its plane from
Houston to Kazakhstan in
departure of Whitson, Yur- days in space over five
chikhin and Fischer. Four flights. time for the crew’s land-
ing. Instead, the European
years and two weeks, he Whitson, a biochemist, set
pointed out. a breakneck pace on all Space Agency offered
to transport Whitson and
“We are in your debt for three of her space station
the supreme dedication expeditions, continually Fischer to Cologne, Ger-
many, where they will meet
that you guys have to the asking for more — and still
human mission of explora- more — scientific research up with the NASA plane for
the final leg of their journey.
tion,” Bresnik told them on to do.
the eve of their departure. Scientists on the ground They were due back in
Houston on Sunday night.
He offered up special praise said it often was hard to
for Whitson — “American keep up with her. She even Three men remain at the
space station: Bresnik, a
space ninja” — and wished experimented on food up
them all Godspeed. there, trying to add some Russian and an Italian. They
will be joined by two Ameri-
In this image posted to her Twitter feed on May 30, 2017, Yurchikhin is now No. 7 on pizazz to the standard cans and a Russian follow-
astronaut Peggy Whitson holds up Chinese cabbage grown in
the International Space Station.
Associated Press
even more time in space:
Whitson was the last one 673 days over five missions.
carried from the Soyuz. She
immediately received a NASA astronaut Jack Fisch-
er returned after 136 days
pair of sunglasses to put on,
as she rested in a chair on aloft. The men flew up in
April.
the barren, wind-swept Ka-
zak steppes. All three briefly held hands
for a photo op, before be-
Medical personnel took
her pulse, standard prac- ing carried one by one in
their chairs to the medical
tice. She then received a
bouquet of flowers with the tent.
It was an emotional fare-
greeting, “Welcome back,
Peggy.” well to the space station
for Whitson, Yurchikhin and
Besides duration, Whitson
set multiple other records Fischer.
Before retreating into their
while in orbit: world’s old-
est spacewoman, at age Soyuz, they embraced
the three colleagues they
57, and most experienced
female spacewalker, with were leaving behind at the
250-mile-high complex.
10. She also became the
first woman to command Yurchikhin patted the in- In this Jan. 6, 2017 made available by NASA, astronaut Peggy Whitson works during a spacewalk
side of the station before
the space station twice fol- outside the International Space Station.
lowing her launch last No- floating into his Soyuz for Associated Press
the final time.
vember. the world’s all-time endur- freeze-dried meals. Tortillas
Returning cosmonaut Fy- The station’s newest com- transformed into apple pies ing liftoff from Kazakhstan
mander, Randy Bresnik, ance list, followed by Whit-
odor Yurchikhin logged on Sept. 12.q
noted the outpost was los- son at No. 8. The top spot on her watch.