NASA’s oldest serving astronaut returned to Earth on Saturday following a 7-month mission on board the International Space Station (ISS). Don Pettit marked his 70th birthday with a special homecoming, although his post-touchdown appearance raised concerns that the astronaut wasn’t doing so well after landing in Kazakhstan.
Pettit, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, departed the ISS on Saturday at 5:57 p.m. ET on board a Soyuz spacecraft before making a parachute-assisted landing at 9:20 p.m. ET, according to NASA. After touching down in the southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Pettit was carried off to a medical tent for routine post-landing medical checks. For those who tuned in to NASA’s live feed of the crew touchdown, there was some speculation that Pettit looked especially frail after his stint in space, but the space agency quickly dismissed claims of health concerns.
“According to NASA officials at the landing site, @Astro_Pettit is doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth,” NASA wrote on X. The space agency quoted the astronaut from a pre-departure interview he had done from the ISS on April 16, in which he spoke of his post-landing experience, “This is a physiological thing. It affects different people in different ways. Some people can go out and eat pizza and dance. When I land, it takes me about 24 hours to feel like I’m a human being again.”
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
The astronaut also jokingly revealed that, once he gets to Earth, he will probably “empty the contents of my stomach out the way it wasn’t meant to go.”
Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner launched to the space station on September 11, 2024, and spent the past 220 days carrying out research and conducting science experiments in the microgravity environment. When he wasn’t busy growing plants or exploring the behavior of fire in space, Pettit shared some incredible views from the space station that have captivated his followers online.
Mother Earth, I am coming home. pic.twitter.com/lxxAQICzMJ
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 19, 2025
This was Pettit’s fourth time in space, with the veteran astronaut logging a total of 590 days in orbit so far. Pettit launched on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour on November 23, 2002 for his first mission on board the ISS. That mission was originally slated to last for two and a half months, but Pettit ended up spending nearly six months on the space station after the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster that tragically killed all seven astronauts and grounded the Space Shuttle fleet.
Pettit has had a long history in spaceflight, but he is still not the oldest person to travel to space. That record belongs to John Glenn, who launched on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 at the age of 77. Astronaut Peggy Whitson became the oldest woman to orbit Earth in 2023 when she served as a commander of a private 10-day mission to the ISS, Axiom Mission-2, at 63 years old.
Compared to Pettit’s long-duration flight, however, Glenn spent less than a fraction of the time in orbit, completing a nine-day mission as a payload specialist. The mission carried out research on aging and the effects of spaceflight, an area that is still being studied to this today.
Although scientists are still trying to understand how space affects the human body, previous research has suggested that spaceflight can accelerate the symptoms of aging by inducing genomic instability. Pettit may not hold the record for the oldest person to go to space, but he is the oldest to complete a long-duration mission in the harsh environment. The astronaut’s continued dedication to spaceflight and his curiosity for the cosmos are truly admirable.