All about Don Pettit, NASA’s oldest astronaut set to return to Earth on April 19

Image credits: Getty Images

Donald Roy Pettit, NASA’s oldest astronaut, is set to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) along with two cosmonaut colleagues, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagneron Saturday, April 19, 2025. “Spanning 220 days in space, Pettit and his crewmates will have orbited the Earth 3,520 times and completed a journey of 93.3 million miles throughout their mission,” said NASA in a statement.

How will the astronauts come home?

The journey home for these astronauts will begin at 5:57 p.m. EDT in the Russian Soyuz spacecraftwhich will depart from the ISS’s Rassvet module. Then the aircraft will touch base on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, around 9:20 pm EDT.

Can you watch the astronauts’ homecoming?

NASA will be webcasting the homecoming of the three astronauts live, and Space.com will be carrying the agency’s feed if it’s made available.

Who is Don Pettit?

Image credits: Getty Images

Donald Roy Pettit, 70, is NASA’s oldest active astronaut. He is set to return to Earth after completing his fourth mission on April 19th, which is also when he celebrates his birthday. Pettit has spent 220 days on the latest mission, having lived a lifetime total of 590 days in space.
Currently, aboard the ISS, this mission has allowed Pettit to complete over 3,520 orbits of the planet and travel more than 93.3 million miles ever since he and two other cosmonauts were launched aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft in September 2024.
Pettit is a famous face amongst followers of NASA as he often shared videos and photos of his experiences from the ISS on social media. He has shared various awe-inspiring phenomena from space with the audience on Earth, including auroras, thunderstorms, the glowing web of city lights as seen from space and more.

Don Pettit’s space career

Image credits: Getty Images

Born in Silverton, Oregon, Pettit graduated from Oregon State University in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering. He followed this with a graduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Arizona, followed by a Ph.D in 1983.
Pettit was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1996. His first flight mission was as a flight engineer on Expedition 6, a long-duration mission on the ISS which lasted from November 24, 2022, to May 4, 2003.
His second role at NASA was as a mission specialist on the STS-126 to deliver equipment and supplies to the ISS.
His third mission was Expedition 30/31, where he was launched to the ISS on December 21, 2011. It was during this mission that he operated the Canadarm2 to grapple the first SpaceX Dragon 1 and berth it to the Harmony module. He also became the first astronaut in the history of space exploration to successfully enter a commercially built and operated spacecraft in orbit.
It was during this mission that he created a video to explain how physics worked in space using an Angry Birds character.
Pettit’s fourth and ongoing mission is the Expedition 71/72where he flew to space on Soyuz MS-26 alongside Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.

Don Pettit’s most famous space posts

In a video posted on his X account (@astro_Pettit), Pettit captured an eye-catching formation flight of Starlink satellites following synchronised paths across the sky.

In another post, he shared a 180-degree rotation of the ISS, presenting a stunning view of the Northern Lights.

Pettit’s most famous video was that of the aurora, captured while the ISS was orbiting between Australia and Antarctica.

Another gleaming clip was of the rare lightning phenomena- Sprites, Blue Jets and other Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) flickering above thunderstorms in the Amazon Basin.