Whitson touches down after scripting space saga

Cape Canaveral, (Florida): Nasa astronaut Peggy Whitson and two crewmates made a parachute touchdown in Kazakhstan on Saturday, capping a career-total 665 days in orbit, a U.S. record.

Whitson, 57, ended an extended stay of more than nine months aboard the International Space Station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 400 km above Earth. “I feel great,” the biochemist said during an in-flight interview on Monday.

“I love working up here. It’s one of the most gratifying jobs I’ve ever had.”

During her third mission aboard the station, Whitson spent much of her time on experiments, including studies of cancerous lung tissue and bone cells. She also completed four spacewalks, adding to her six previous outings, to set a record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman.

Two crewmates who launched with Whitson in November returned to Earth three months ago. She stayed aboard to fill a vacancy after Russia scaled down its station staff from three to two cosmonauts.

Whitson returned to Earth with Jack Fischer, also with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who had been aboard the station since June.

The crew’s Russian Soyuz capsule touched down in Kazakhstan at 9:21 p.m. EDT Saturday. “I’m looking forward to seeing friends and family,” Whitson said during another interview.

“But the thing I’ve been thinking about the most, kind of been fantasising about a little bit, are foods that I want to make, vegetables that I want to sauté, things.”

Astronaut Peggy Whitson and two crewmates capped a career-total 665 days in orbit

In April, Whitson broke the 534-day US record for cumulative time in space

Whitson became an astronaut in 1996. She is the first woman to command the space station; the first woman and first non-pilot to serve as chief of the Nasa Astronaut Corps

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— AFP (From left) Astronauts Peggy Whitson, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Jack Fischer in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, after landing the Russian Soyuz MS-04 space capsule on Sunday.