Kazakhstan: American astronaut Donald Roy Pettit (Don Pettit), NASA’s oldest active astronaut, has returned to Earth on his 70th birthday after completing a 220-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Pettit arrived alongside Russian crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft, which made a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan’s steppe at 06:20 local time (01:20 GMT) on Sunday, 20th of April.
According to NASA, the trio orbited the Earth 3,520 times during the mission. This marks Pettit’s fourth spaceflight and brings his total time spent in space to 590 days.
While Pettit is now the oldest American to serve in space, the record for the oldest person to orbit the Earth remains with John Glenn, who flew at age 77 in 1998. Glenn passed away in 2016.
Happy birthday, @astro_Pettit! Many happy returns (including this one) 🥳
The MS-26 Soyuz spacecraft touched down in Kazakhstan at 9:20pm ET—or, in local time, 6:20am April 20, Pettit's 70th birthday. pic.twitter.com/qFM5fAxnA0
— NASA (@NASA) April 20, 2025
Following their landing, the astronauts will begin a period of physical readjustment to Earth’s gravity. Pettit, who was born in Oregon on April 20, 1955, will be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Meanwhile, Ovchinin and Vagner will return to Russia’s main space training facility in Zvyozdniy Gorodok (Star City) near Moscow.
Before departing the ISS, the crew handed over station command to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.
This return also comes just one month after fellow NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams concluded an unexpectedly extended mission aboard the ISS.
Originally scheduled for just eight days, their mission lasted over nine months due to technical problems with their spacecraft. After arriving at the ISS in June 2024, the delays meant they only returned to Earth on 18 March 2025.
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