NASA’s oldest astronaut, Don Pettit to return on his 70th birthday after 220 days in space

NASA’s Oldest Astronaut to Return on His 70th Birthday (Image: NASA)

Don Pettit is heading home from space on his 70th birthday. The NASA astronaut will return on 19 April after completing his fourth mission. Floating aboard the International Space Station (ISS), he has spent 220 days in orbit this time. This brings his total to 590 days across his long career. With more than 3,520 orbits of Earth, Mr Pettit has seen the planet in a way few ever have.

During his mission, Mr Pettit travelled 93.3 million miles in orbit. He regularly shared videos and images that fascinated viewers online. One post featured Starlink satellites flying in perfect formation.

Formation flying; Starlink satellites tracing parallel lines in the sky.Thanks to @BabakTafreshi for assembling this clip from timelapse images. pic.twitter.com/9vCKt1lCx5

Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 11, 2025

Another showed the ISS rotating 180 degrees with the Northern Lights glowing in the background.

Changes in attitude, changes in latitude: @Space_Station We rotated 180 degrees and flew backwards for yesterdays Soyuz docking. This is a bit long but keep watching for the surprise in the middle. pic.twitter.com/UDEp8zKDwE Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 9, 2025

He also filmed auroras shining between Australia and Antarctica. In that clip, he praised fellow space photographer @astro_jannicke, currently on the private FRAM2 mission.

Changes in attitude, changes in latitude: @Space_Station We rotated 180 degrees and flew backwards for yesterdays Soyuz docking. This is a bit long but keep watching for the surprise in the middle. pic.twitter.com/UDEp8zKDwE

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Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 9, 2025

Mr Pettit didn’t stop there. He posted a video showing strange lightning above Amazonian storms. Sprites and Blue Jets flashed across the screen in real time. “This is for your inner Uber-Geek,” he joked in the caption.

OK, this is kind of out there and caters to your inner Uber-Geek. Nadir view of Transient Luminous Events (TLE ) or upper atmospheric lightning. This clip real time is about 6 seconds over the Amazon basin and shows a number of TLE displays from Sprites to blue jets from a pic.twitter.com/IE0Edtm2Rl Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 3, 2025

Mr Pettit will leave the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-26. He will travel alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Their spacecraft will undock from the Rassvet module at 5:57 p.m. EDT. The team is expected to land in Kazakhstan at 9:20 p.m. EDT (6:20 a.m. local time, 20 April). The capsule will touch down with parachute assistance near Dzhezkazgan.

As Pettit marks his 70th birthday, he returns with memories few can match — and stories written in stars.