NASA Astronaut Don Pettit Soyuz MS-26 Re-entry and Landing

On April 19, 2025, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, safely returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft. Their mission concluded after 220 days in space, during which they orbited Earth 3,520 times, covering over 93 million miles. The crew landed southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 9:20 p.m. EDT (01:20 UTC on April 20).​
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This marked Pettit's fourth spaceflight, bringing his total time in space to 590 days. Notably, the landing coincided with his 70th birthday, making him NASA's oldest active astronaut to return from orbit. During their mission, the crew conducted experiments on water purification, plant growth in microgravity, and fire behavior in space.