Peggy Whitson breaks space travel record, gets call from the president – Radio Iowa

Peggy Whitson and fellow astronaut Jack Fischer.

The American astronaut whos spent the most time in space is now an Iowa native.

Peggy Whitson, who was named the stations commander earlier this month, has spent a total of 535 days in orbit during her three missions. The previous record-holder was astronaut Jeff Williams with 534 days.

President Trump made a congratulatory call to Whitson this morning. Thats an incredible record to break and on behalf of our nation and frankly, on behalf of the world, Id like to congratulate you, Trump said. That is really something.

Astronaut Kate Rubins, President Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump.

First Daughter Ivanka Trump and astronaut Kate Rubins were also on the call. Whitson, a native of Beaconsfield, is scheduled to be aloft another five months. In a Radio Iowa interview from orbit in December, Whitson was very upbeat about sharing the station with four other astronauts.

Since I flew the last time, weve probably increased the internal volume by almost 30%, so its actually not really feeling very crowded at all up here, Whitson says. Theres still many days where I work by myself in a module on a task and the guys are in their own modules and maybe one of the Russians will come down and ask, Hey, wheres Shane? and Im like, I dont know, have to go look.'

Several of the new laboratories are the size of school buses and the station overall is roughly as big as a football field. Plus, the famed cupola has been added since Whitson was last there, a large circular porthole through which astronauts can watch the clouds and continents drift past.

We dont really feel too crowded here, its actually very nice to be able to have an opportunity at mealtimes, usually lunch but always at dinnertime, to get together and talk and share what weve been doing over the day, what was hard, what was funny, Whitson says. Its fun to get together at the end of the day.

During her missions to the station in 2002 and 2007, Whitson said one of her biggest challenges was coping with the monotony of the food. Thats improved, she says, as she shares the truly-international station with one other American, a Frenchman and two Russians.

Takuya Onishi, a Japanese guy, was up here before and he didnt get to eat all of his bonus food, so weve been tasting on that as well as Thomas Pesquets French food, Whitson says. Were having a good time with a little bit more variety than normal. I dont know how long the leftover Japanese food will last, but hopefully well be able to share more of Thomas French food.

Whitson turned 57 in February and is the oldest woman ever to fly in space. She also has the record for most spacewalks (eight) by a woman. NASA chose to add three months to her current mission and shes now scheduled to return to Earth in September.

Even with the extra time, Whitson wont beat the all-time space duration record held by Russian cosmonaut Gannady Padalka at 879 days over five missions.

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Peggy Whitson breaks space travel record, gets call from the president - Radio Iowa