NASA’s oldest energetic astronaut will return to house for a six-month mission in September.Don Pettit, 69, will fly to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) as part of the Roscosmos-led Soyuz MS-26 mission, which incorporates Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Russian state media supply TASS stated this week that the launch date might be on Sept. 11. The NASA astronaut’s task, introduced in Could, will see Pettit make his fourth journey to house so as to add on to 370 days accrued days in orbit. His earlier missions included Expedition 6 in 2003, the short-duration house shuttle mission STS-126 in 2008, and Expedition 30/31 in 2012. The launch of MS-26 may even be Ovchinin’s third flight, after Expeditions 47/48 and Expeditions 59/60, and Vagner’s second after Expedition 62/63.Associated: ‘Spaceborne’: Astronaut Don Pettit’s superb house images (gallery)Pettit’s Expedition 6 mission was unexpectedly prolonged in orbit. He and the remainder of the crew launched on house shuttle Endeavour together with mission STS-113 on Nov. 24, 2002. Lower than three months later, tragedy struck. The Columbia house shuttle broke up throughout reentry on Feb. 1, 2003, killing seven astronauts. Expedition 6 was unable to come back again to Earth aboard shuttle Discovery, as deliberate.NASA grounded its shuttle fleet for 2 years to research the reason for the accident and make cures. Whereas elements akin to schedule strain had been cited within the Columbia Accident Investigation Board’s six-volume report, the first explanation for the catastrophe was harm brought on by a bit of froth falling from a strut onto the shuttle’s exterior tank, which broken the spacecraft wing and made it susceptible through the warmth of re-entry. Breaking house information, the newest updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!Within the meantime, Pettit’s crew safely returned dwelling on the Russian Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft on Could 4, 2003 after a uncommon glitch throughout touchdown that led to re-entry and retrieval points. The difficulty — later decided to have a 1 in 7000 probability of occurring — led to a fault within the steering system inflicting the spacecraft to land about 250 miles (400 km) in need of its deliberate touchdown web site, in line with the European House Company.The Russian Soyuz MS-22 house capsule descends below its foremost parachute because it lands on the steppes of Kazakhstan on March 28, 2023. NASA astronaut Don Pettit had an uncommon descent aboard Soyuz in 2003 that put his touchdown far off beam, however his crew was retrieved safely after a delay. (Picture credit score: Roscosmos)Throughout re-entry, the crew skilled a great deal of eight instances Earth’s gravity in comparison with the conventional six. Additionally they weren’t picked up by helicopter for 5 hours partly as a consequence of communications points that led to uncertainty about their touchdown zone, in line with RussianSpaceWeb.Pettit was chosen by NASA in 1993 and might be making his first flight to house in a dozen years. His time in orbit contains two spacewalks, with 13 hours and 17 minutes accrued in a spacesuit. Considered one of his spacewalking milestones contains putting in an ISS system that transforms urine into potable water, lowering the necessity for water shipments from Earth. Pettit can also be the primary astronaut to seize SpaceX’s cargo Dragon spacecraft in orbit on Could 25, 2012, utilizing the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Pettit’s achievements additionally embody patenting a zero-G espresso cup, witnessing a photo voltaic eclipse from house, capturing the historic transit of Venus throughout the solar in 2012 from the ISS, and taking unbelievable timelapse images out the window.Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit took images of star trails, terrestrial lights, airglow and auroras whereas aboard the Worldwide House Station. Picture taken April 5, 2012. (Picture credit score: Don Pettit)Whereas Pettit is NASA’s oldest energetic astronaut, a number of different skilled astronauts of their 60s have flown to house, together with retired NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson (64) and Michael López-Alegría (66) who at the moment are commanding missions with Houston-based Axiom House. Additionally, even older people with company affiliations or connections have flown to orbit over the many years. Retired NASA astronaut John Glenn, for instance, flew on house shuttle Discovery mission STS-95 in 1998 at age 77. Glenn, a senator on the time, was a part of the U.S. Senate’s Particular Committee on Getting old. He made NASA a pitch to fly himself to research how spaceflight is just like getting old, in line with the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Air and House Museum.Earlier this 12 months, Ed Dwight flew into house at age 90 aboard a suborbital Blue Origin mission referred to as NS-25, making him the oldest particular person to fly to house. Dwight was chosen by then-President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to coach on the U.S. Air Power’s Aerospace Analysis Pilot Faculty. As ARPS was a gateway to NASA’s astronaut corps again then, Dwight was the USA’ first Black astronaut candidate, however NASA did not choose him regardless of endorsement by the Air Power for spaceflight. One other Blue Origin flight carried “Mercury 13” pioneer Wally Funk to house at age 82, in 2021. Within the early Nineteen Sixties, Funk was a part of a gaggle of ladies aviators privately evaluated for health to fly into house with comparability to NASA’s astronaut necessities on the time (the company was solely flying male astronauts again then, largely as a result of it recruited from the male-dominated U.S. army of the day). NASA, nonetheless, didn’t endorse the Mercury 13 program and finally chosen the primary girls astronaut candidates in 1978.