Who is Don Pettit and how did NASA's oldest astronaut end up in Scotland?
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NASA's oldest astronaut ended up in Scotland just a few hours after returning from 220 days in space. Don Pettit and his team completed a seven month research assignment at the International Space Station, and landed back on Earth in Kazakhstan on Sunday (April 20).
A Soyuz capsule brought NASA's oldest astronaut and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner back to Earth with no complications. Dr Pettit also celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday, after orbiting the Earth 3,520 times, Nasa shared in a statement.
Dr Pettit then boarded a plane bound for the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, after NASA followed its routine postlanding medical checks.
But who exactly is NASA's most senior astronaut, and how did he end up in Scotland on his way home from space? Here's everything you need to know about the space cadet.
Who is Dr Don Pettit?
NASA's website explains that Dr Donald Pettit was selected to work for the association in 1996.
The Oregon-born astronaut has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University and a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona.
Before his career in space travel, he worked as a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.
A veteran of three spaceflights, Pettit served as NASA Science Officer for Expedition 6 in 2003, and previously lived aboard the International Space Station for more than one year.
The 70-year-old has logged a total of 590 days in space, including over 13 spacewalk hours. Pettit ventured to the International Space Station on September 11, 2024, as a flight engineer on the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft.
After seven months aboard the station, conducting science experiments and maintaining the space station, he returned on Easter Sunday, and celebrated his 70th birthday.
(Image: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
How did Don Pettit end up in Scotland?
Flight tracking data showed that the plane carrying Dr Pettit - NASA5 - landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport at around 4:15pm on Sunday after a seven-hour 50 minute flight from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, reports the Herald.
After the short layover on Scottish soil, the Gulfstream V jet then left Prestwick at around 6:35pm on Sunday bound for Houston, where it landed at around 10pm local time after a nine-hour 20 minute flight.
NASA has said that Pettit was "doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth".
And this senior space cadet isn't the first to briefly visit Scotland after returning from space.
NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei also touched down at Prestwick from Kazakhstan in 2018 en route to Houston. Both had spent 168 days aboard the International Space Station before returning to Earth alongside Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
American astronauts have been hitching a ride with Russian cosmonauts to get to the International Space Station and back again since NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011.
Since November 2000, the space station has been continuously occupied. While travelling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth about every 90 minutes, an international crew of seven people live and work on it. Although, sometimes more are aboard the station during a crew handover.
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