Astronaut Peggy Whitson became the longest-serving American in space on Monday, NASA reported, after she passed astronaut Jeff Williams' record of 534 days.
Whitson became an astronaut candidate in 1996."We are ready for our launch tomorrow!" Whitson tweeted before suiting up for her historic flight. The three-person crew joined another American and two Russians already on board. The mission is scheduled to finish in May, after completing a range of scientific investigations and daily tasks while orbiting the planet. Whitson has spent several months onboard the International Space Station, where she is due to depart for Earth in September. At the time nearly 57, Whitson also became the oldest woman to blast into space when she left for the station in November.
Whitson received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump on Monday. This is a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight," Trump told her via a video link from the White House. "You have broken the record for the most total time spent in space by an American astronaut. That's an incredible record to break."Flying into space since 2002, the veteran astronaut Whitson is also repeating her record as the first woman to command the International Space Station twice. Whitson began her latest historic journey toward the stars on November 18 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, when she lifted off on a Soyuz rocket with cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and French flyer Thomas Pesquet. It was Whitson's third trip to the ISS.
"My mother was a teacher who loved space & my father was an engineer," Whitson also tweeted. "I ended up combining both."Before liftoff, Whitson tweeted that she was inspired by the dramatic photo of November's supermoon rising above her rocket as captured by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls. The three-person crew joined another American and two Russians already on board. The mission is scheduled to finish in May, after completing a range of scientific investigations and daily tasks while orbiting the planet.