Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrates 70th birthday with return to Earth | Space

On his 70th birthday, NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz capsule after completing a seven-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS). Alongside Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, Pettit spent 220 days in space, orbiting Earth 3,520 times and conducting research in areas like water sanitization and plant growth. After landing in Kazakhstan, Pettit was reported to be in good health and was set to return to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas.