Saying Goodbye to NASA Astronaut Don Pettit | International Space Station

Saying Goodbye to NASA Astronaut Don Pettit | International Space Station

Expedition 72 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers: "Saying goodbye today to Don Pettit. It’s bittersweet because he had an amazing mission and inspired so many people while he was here."

"The time we got to spend together was wonderful and I learned a ton from this amazing human. Godspeed and we wish you a soft landing Don!"

NASA astronaut Don Pettit of NASA, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos (Russia) are returning to Earth after 220 days in space. The trio will undock in their Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft from the Rassvet module at 5:57 p.m. EDT on Saturday ending Expedition 72 then parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 8:20 p.m. the same day (6:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, in Kazakhstan) on Pettit’s 70th birthday.

Follow Expedition 72:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew

Station Commander: JAXA Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy

NASA Flight Engineers: Don Pettit, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science 

For more information about STEM on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation 

Image Credit: NASA/Don Pettit
Capture Date: March 26, 2025

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