Astronaut Don Pettit, 70, wants to fly more missions in space
Despite his apparent significant discomfit upon landing last week after seven months in orbit, American astronaut Don Pettit is still eager to fly more times in space, despite celebrating his 70th birthday on the day he returned from ISS.
Pettit landed in Kazakhstan with his two Russian Soyuz MS-26 crewmates on April 20, 2025 local time in Kazakhstan, his 70th birthday. Cameras cut away as he was extracted from the capsule, raising concerns about his health. During a post-mission briefing today he explained that “I was right in the middle of emptying the contents of my stomach onto the steppes of Kazakhstan” and the cameraman kindly gave him the privacy he needed. He added that his body reacts to the return to Earth about the same way every time regardless of duration.
He looked fit today, just a week later.
At the briefing Pettit noted how returning to Earth can be very discomfiting, but with a little effort and time recovery occurs. He also noted how weightlessness is wonderful for older humans.
“I love being in space,” he said. “When you’re sleeping, you’re just floating, and your body, all those little aches and pains heal up. You feel like you’re 30 years old again and free of pain, free of everything. So I love being on orbit. It’s a great place to be for me and my physiology.”
Whether Pettit gets another flight is unclear. There are a lot of medical research reasons to fly an older individual like him in space. Whether NASA wants to do it is another question. The agency has generally been very timid about doing such things.
Pettit also claimed at this briefing that ISS could fly well past 2030, and shouldn’t be de-orbited then as planned. He however likely spent almost all his time in orbit on the American half, and likely has limited information about the stress fractures in the Russian Zvezda module.
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Despite his apparent significant discomfit upon landing last week after seven months in orbit, American astronaut Don Pettit is still eager to fly more times in space, despite celebrating his 70th birthday on the day he returned from ISS.
Pettit landed in Kazakhstan with his two Russian Soyuz MS-26 crewmates on April 20, 2025 local time in Kazakhstan, his 70th birthday. Cameras cut away as he was extracted from the capsule, raising concerns about his health. During a post-mission briefing today he explained that “I was right in the middle of emptying the contents of my stomach onto the steppes of Kazakhstan” and the cameraman kindly gave him the privacy he needed. He added that his body reacts to the return to Earth about the same way every time regardless of duration.
He looked fit today, just a week later.
At the briefing Pettit noted how returning to Earth can be very discomfiting, but with a little effort and time recovery occurs. He also noted how weightlessness is wonderful for older humans.
“I love being in space,” he said. “When you’re sleeping, you’re just floating, and your body, all those little aches and pains heal up. You feel like you’re 30 years old again and free of pain, free of everything. So I love being on orbit. It’s a great place to be for me and my physiology.”
Whether Pettit gets another flight is unclear. There are a lot of medical research reasons to fly an older individual like him in space. Whether NASA wants to do it is another question. The agency has generally been very timid about doing such things.
Pettit also claimed at this briefing that ISS could fly well past 2030, and shouldn’t be de-orbited then as planned. He however likely spent almost all his time in orbit on the American half, and likely has limited information about the stress fractures in the Russian Zvezda module.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If NASA takes Petit off the rotation he could likely resign and go to work for Axiom, Vast or some other commercial LEO station operator. Vast’s Haven 2, in particular, will be capable of hosting a significantly larger maximum crew than ISS when fully built-out. Petit might not be the only NASA astronaut to potentially contemplate a change of employer once commercial LEO and commercial Moon missions both become things.
I don’t have a wife or children–I’d volunteer to go on a one way trip to set up some equipment off world, and eat benzos as my air ran out.
Forget space tourism. I think Pettit is on the verge of inventing the space retirement home for wannabe active seniors who can’t be active here on Earth.