**Oldest US Astronaut Celebrates 70th Birthday with Return to Earth**

**Dan Pettit’s return to Earth marks a significant milestone in his storied career and raises questions about aging in the demanding field of space exploration.**

America's oldest serving astronaut, Dan Pettit, marked his 70th birthday by returning to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft. Pettit, along with his Russian crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, touched down in Kazakhstan's steppe at 06:20 local time (01:20 GMT) on Sunday morning. Their mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) lasted for 220 days, during which they orbited the Earth 3,520 times.

This mission adds to Pettit's impressive total of 590 days in space, earned over four different missions. Although he is the oldest active astronaut in the U.S., the record for the oldest person to fly in space is held by John Glenn, who undertook a mission at age 77 in 1998. Glenn passed away in 2016.

Following their return, Pettit is set to re-adjust to life on Earth before traveling to Houston, Texas. His Russian colleagues will head to Zvyozdniy Gorodok, Russia's primary space training base. Before departing the ISS, the crew successfully handed over command of the station to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.

In another development, two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, finally returned to Earth after spending an extended nine months on the ISS, primarily due to technical difficulties with their return spacecraft. They had launched to the ISS in June 2024, originally slated for an eight-day mission.