Record-breaking US astronaut Peggy Whitson returns to Earth

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Astronaut Peggy Whitson returns to Earth late Saturday, wrapping up a record-breaking flight that catapulted her to first place for US space endurance.

Whitson’s 665 days off the planet — 288 days on this mission alone — exceeds that of any other American and any other woman worldwide.

She checked out of the International Space Station just hours earlier, along with another American and a Russian. Their Soyuz capsule lands in Kazakhstan shortly after sunrise Sunday — Saturday night back in the US.

Whitson was the last one carried from the Soyuz. She immediately received a pair of sunglasses to put on, as she rested in a chair on the barren, wind-swept Kazak steppes. Medical personnel took her pulse, standard practice. She then received a bouquet of flowers with the greeting, “Welcome back, Peggy.”

Besides duration, Whitson set multiple other records while in orbit: world’s oldest spacewoman, at age 57, and most experienced female spacewalker, with 10 spacewalks. She also became the first woman to command the space station twice following her launch last November.

— AP