Last month, 70-year-old NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth after 220 days on the International Space Station (ISS). As the oldest astronaut in the agency’s history, he has spent a total of 590 days in space during his 30-year career. The return also coincided with his anniversary, which fell on the day he landed.
But while Pettit felt young and full of energy in weightlessness, returning to Earth’s gravity was a great physical challenge for him.
Transition from weightlessness to gravity
Pettit landed on April 20 in the Kazakh steppes on a Russian Soyuz capsule. According to him, he felt 30 years younger in space. “There you float, all the pain disappears,” he recalls. “I sat down and stood up, I felt at the peak of my form.” On Earth, however, things changed: “After I got back, I couldn’t even get up off the floor. It’s humiliating.”
During his first meeting with the press at the Johnson Space Center, Pettit was in good spirits, although he admitted to feeling ill after landing. “I didn’t look good because I felt the same way,” he joked.
The transition from weightlessness to Earth gravity was more difficult than in previous missions due to age and long time in space.
NASA record holder
But despite his honored age, Pettit is not the oldest person to have been in space. That title belongs to 90-year-olds William Shatner and Ed Dwight, who reached the Karman Line on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. However, Pettit holds the record as the oldest astronaut to spend 220 days in weightlessness. By comparison, John Glenn, at age 77, spent only 9 days in orbit.
Future plans
Despite the challenges of adapting, Pettit doesn’t plan to stop. “I still have a few good years left,” he says, “I think I’ll have time to fly once or twice more before I retire.” His story proves: space can give you youth, but the Earth will always remind you of its harsh laws of gravity.
This contrast between weightlessness and gravity shows how the human body adapts to extreme conditions – even at age 70.
We previously explained how long humans can survive in weightlessness.
According to arstechnica.com
