She holds the NASA record for time spent in space. This week she’s back : NPR

Astronaut Peggy Whitson, perhaps thinking of breaking records or staying in space.

Bill Ingalls/NASA/NASA via Getty Images

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Bill Ingalls/NASA/NASA via Getty Images

Astronaut Peggy Whitson, perhaps thinking of breaking records or staying in space.

Bill Ingalls/NASA/NASA via Getty Images

Before this week, Peggy Whitson had spent a total of 665 days in space during her career, give her the NASA record. She’s not done yet.

Who is she? Whitson, 63, is a biochemist, retired NASA astronaut and often referred to as the “space ninja”.

What is the big problem? Though her time at NASA is over, Whitson recently returned to space on a charter flight as commander. It includes Saudi Arabia’s first astronauts in decades.

• The flight, organized by Axiom Space and powered by SpaceX rockets and capsules, headed for the International Space Station, and included Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher turned woman. first Saudi female in space, according to AP news agency.
• The crew launched this past Sunday, and will spend more than a week at the station before heading back with a landing off the coast of Florida.
• The ticketed trip, estimated to cost around $55 million per person, is just one of several forays into space tourism that seems to be the future of the super-rich.

Want to learn about another inspirational person? Listen Consider this about Michael J. Fox and the fight against Parkinson’s disease.

What are people saying?

“It was an extraordinary trip,” is what Whitson said after going into orbit, according to AP.

Here are some of her thoughts shared in conversation with NPR a few years ago:

About gravity:

Gravity always attracts. It’s really, really…

It’s been a huge challenge to get used to feeling the heaviness again, you know? Even my arms feel heavy. My legs feel heavy.

When readjusting when you return from space:

I found it very difficult. I always call it post-flight fun, where I’m not sure what the goal is now. It’s funny, because when you have a daily routine of, “This is how much I want to try to accomplish today,” it gives you — anyway — a lot of motivation and a lot of direction. . And the process of going back to the beginning feels a bit directional.

And just for fun, here it is William Shatner’s Haunting Account of Space Travel after leaving the planet for a bit with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Company:

It was the death I saw in space and the life force I saw coming from the planet – blue, beige and white, and I recognized death on one side and life on the other.

What now?

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