Nasa astronaut Don Pettit marked his 70th birthday not in the quiet of retirement or with a cozy family gathering, but while plummeting back to Earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule after a 220-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
As Pettit and his Russian crewmates, Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday, their spacecraft streaked through the sky, landing in the desolate steppe of Kazakhstan just after sunrise. It was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight and perhaps his most poetic—turning 70 while falling from space.
The trio had completed 3,520 orbits and traveled over 93 million miles, conducting research ranging from fire behavior in microgravity to plant growth experiments. Pettit, now with over 18 months in space logged across his 29-year career, emerged from the capsule with a thumbs-up, though looking understandably dazed.
“Don is doing well and within the expected range following his return,” NASA said, as medics checked on the astronaut before his journey back to Houston.
For most people, 70 might mean slowing down. For Don Pettit, it meant breaking the limits of age and gravity.