Astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is the International Space Station (ISS) commander, has added a record to the rundown of her trailblazing accomplishments. At 1.27 AM ET on April 24, she turned into the U.S. space explorer with the longest total time spent in space i.e. 534 days, 2 hours, 49 minutes and still being counted.
According to News Week, astronaut Peggy Whitson has broken the record of astronaut Jeff Williams, who had a record of spending 534 days, 2 hours and 48 minutes in space. Peggy Whitson had a previous record of total 376 days spent in space in her last two missions to the ISS in the years 2002 and 2008.
To the great achievement of astronaut Peggy Whitson, the president of United States, Donald Trump, and his daughter, who is also his special advisor, Ivanka Trump, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins are planning to have a 20 min conference i.e. earth to space call for congratulating Whitson. The space call will be live streamed on television channels and social media.
Astronaut Peggy Whitson is also the oldest woman for going to space and staying there. National Geographic reported that Whitson is at 57 years of age, and also holds the record for being the oldest woman for spending time in space. She also has the record of the woman having longest hours of spacewalks, i.e. 39 hours. Her ninth spacewalk is scheduled on 12 May 2017 which will increase her total spacewalk hours to 53 hours. The current spacewalks intend to set up the space stations for the landing of commercial spaceships in the years to come.
Astronaut Peggy Whitson started her NASA career in 1980 after she earned a doctorate in biochemistry. After becoming an astronaut in the year 1996, her first trip to International Space Station (ISS) was scheduled in the year 2002. She was the first woman chief of the Astronaut office from 2009 to 2012.
