NASA’s Pettit Celebrates 70th Birthday Returning to Earth After 7 Months in Space

NASA astronaut Don Pettit and two Russian crewmates landed in Kazakhstan this evening, April 19, which was April 20 local time at the landing site. The time zone difference is important because April 20 is Pettit’s 70th birthday. NASA’s oldest active astronaut, he spent 220 days aboard the International Space Station and now has accumulated 590 days in space over four flights. Pettit appeared weaker than his crewmates after he was extracted from the Soyuz capsule, but NASA reports he is “doing well and in the range of what is expected for him.” [Update, April 20: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield posted a photo of Pettit on X showing him smiling and giving a thumbs up. See below.]

Pettit and his Soyuz MS-26 crewmates Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner landed at 9:20 pm April 19 Eastern Daylight Time, which was 6:20 am April 20 at the landing site.

Typically, Russian video shows each crew member being extracted from the Soyuz capsule and carried several feet to chairs where they are met by medical staff for immediate health checks. After several minutes where they are shown smiling and talking with colleagues, they are carried to a nearby medical tent for additional checks before they board helicopters to begin their return trips home.

That was true today for Ovchinin and Vagner, but Pettit was shown only being carried out of the capsule to a chair. He pushed up his helmet’s visor by himself, but appeared weaker than his crewmates.

Nothing more was shown or said about Pettit’s status until after Vagner was moved to the medical tent and NASA commentator Rob Navias said Pettit was also there.

Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com tweeted that Russian commentary indicated Pettit was “in a bad shape” and the cameraman was instructed to avoid showing him.

…The commentary indicates that Pettit was in a bad shape after extraction from the capsule…

— Anatoly Zak (@RussianSpaceWeb) April 20, 2025

Pettit is not the oldest person to fly in space, but he is the oldest to remain in space for such a long time — seven months.

In a post-landing press release, NASA said he’s “doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth.”

“NASA is following its routine postlanding medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Pettit will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. According to NASA officials at the landing site, Pettit is doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth.”

Update April 20:  Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a former ISS resident himself, posted this photo of Pettit being carried from the Soyuz capsule on X. Pettit looks weak, but is smiling and giving a thumbs up.

Welcome back to Earth’s gravity Don ⁦@astro_Pettit⁩! What a brutal way to celebrate your 70th birthday after 220 days off-planet. pic.twitter.com/3NOocw5Z9H

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) April 20, 2025

In addition to working on a wide array of science experiments, Pettit, who is renowned for his space photography, sent back stunning images of Earth and the cosmos.

He came. He saw. He took great pictures.

Now, it’s time for him to come home. Watch live as @Astro_Pettit and two cosmonauts depart the @Space_Station aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft and return to Earth on Saturday, April 19. See the full schedule: https://t.co/aooEnloGRK pic.twitter.com/oZAyA0LN9e

— NASA (@NASA) April 18, 2025

His son (@PettitFrontier) posted a thread on X with his top 12 favorites, including this one of the Milky Way.

Pettit, Ovchinin and Vagner launched on Soyuz MS-26 on September 11, 2024 and arrived at the ISS about three hours later. They replaced Soyuz MS-25, who undocked and returned to Earth on September 23.

ISS is an international partnership among the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and 11 European countries working through the European Space Agency.

International crews have permanently occupied the ISS since Expedition 1 when two Russians (Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko) and one American (Bill Shepherd) floated aboard more than 24 years ago on November 2, 2000. Expedition 72 ended when Soyuz MS-26 undocked this afternoon and Expedition 73 began with the combined crews of Soyuz MS-27 and NASA’s Crew-10.

Americans and Russians routinely fly on each other’s spacecraft to ensure that at least one from each country is always aboard to operate the interdependent U.S. and Russian segments.