NASA Confirms 70-Year-Old Astronaut Don Pettit Is Doing Well Despite Looking Frail After Landing

NASA’s oldest serving astronaut returned to Earth connected Saturday pursuing a 7-month ngo connected committee the International Space Station (ISS). Don Pettit marked his 70th day with a peculiar homecoming, though his post-touchdown quality raised concerns that the astronaut wasn’t doing truthful good aft landing successful Kazakhstan.

Pettit, on with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, departed the ISS connected Saturday astatine 5:57 p.m. ET connected committee a Soyuz spacecraft earlier making a parachute-assisted landing astatine 9:20 p.m. ET, according to NASA. After touching down successful the southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Pettit was carried disconnected to a aesculapian structure for regular post-landing aesculapian checks. For those who tuned successful to NASA’s unrecorded provender of the unit touchdown, determination was immoderate speculation that Pettit looked particularly frail aft his stint successful space, but the abstraction bureau rapidly dismissed claims of wellness concerns.

“According to NASA officials astatine the landing site, @Astro_Pettit is doing good and successful the scope of what is expected for him pursuing instrumentality to Earth,” NASA wrote connected X. The abstraction bureau quoted the astronaut from a pre-departure interview helium had done from the ISS connected April 16, successful which helium spoke of his post-landing experience, “This is simply a physiological thing. It affects antithetic radical successful antithetic ways. Some radical tin spell retired and devour pizza and dance. When I land, it takes maine astir 24 hours to consciousness similar I’m a quality being again.”

Happy birthday, @astro_Pettit! Many blessed returns (including this one) 🥳

The MS-26 Soyuz spacecraft touched down successful Kazakhstan astatine 9:20pm ET—or, successful section time, 6:20am April 20, Pettit's 70th birthday. pic.twitter.com/qFM5fAxnA0

— NASA (@NASA) April 20, 2025

The astronaut besides jokingly revealed that, erstwhile helium gets to Earth, helium volition astir apt “empty the contents of my tummy retired the mode it wasn’t meant to go.”

Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner launched to the abstraction presumption connected September 11, 2024, and spent the past 220 days carrying retired probe and conducting subject experiments successful the microgravity environment. When helium wasn’t engaged increasing plants oregon exploring the behaviour of occurrence successful space, Pettit shared immoderate unthinkable views from the abstraction presumption that person captivated his followers online.

Mother Earth, I americium coming home. pic.twitter.com/lxxAQICzMJ

— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 19, 2025

This was Pettit’s 4th clip successful space, with the seasoned astronaut logging a full of 590 days successful orbit truthful far. Pettit launched connected committee the Space Shuttle Endeavour connected November 23, 2002 for his archetypal ngo connected committee the ISS. That ngo was primitively slated to past for 2 and a fractional months, but Pettit ended up spending astir six months connected the abstraction presumption aft the Columbia Space Shuttle catastrophe that tragically killed each 7 astronauts and grounded the Space Shuttle fleet.

Pettit has had a agelong past successful spaceflight, but helium is inactive not the oldest idiosyncratic to question to space. That grounds belongs to John Glenn, who launched connected the Space Shuttle Discovery successful 1998 astatine the property of 77. Astronaut Peggy Whitson became the oldest pistillate to orbit Earth successful 2023 erstwhile she served arsenic a commandant of a backstage 10-day ngo to the ISS, Axiom Mission-2, astatine 63 years old.

Compared to Pettit’s long-duration flight, however, Glenn spent little than a fraction of the clip successful orbit, completing a nine-day ngo arsenic a payload specialist. The ngo carried retired probe connected aging and the effects of spaceflight, an country that is inactive being studied to this today.

Although scientists are inactive trying to recognize however abstraction affects the quality body, erstwhile research has suggested that spaceflight tin accelerate the symptoms of aging by inducing genomic instability. Pettit whitethorn not clasp the grounds for the oldest idiosyncratic to spell to space, but helium is the oldest to implicit a long-duration ngo successful the harsh environment. The astronaut’s continued dedication to spaceflight and his curiosity for the cosmos are genuinely admirable.