International Space Station News: NASA’s Peggy Whitson Gets 3-Month Extension

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is no stranger to making records, and she is about to break another one, one that would be hard to beat. Her ongoing stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has been extended by another three months, but even without that, she would become the national record holder for spending the highest number of cumulative days spent in space on April 24.

She will surpass Jeff Williams’ record of 534 cumulative days, and given the extension, which will keep her in the orbiting laboratory till September, will add at least a 130-days margin on top of that.

Responding to the news of her time on ISS being extended, Whitson said in a statement released Wednesday by NASA: “This is great news. I love being up here. Living and working aboard the space station is where I feel like I make the greatest contribution, so I am constantly trying to squeeze every drop out of my time here. Having three more months to squeeze is just what I would wish for.”

Read: Roscosmos May Extend ISS Partnership Beyond 2024

An agreement to extend her stay into Expedition 52 was signed between NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos. Whitson was earlier scheduled to return to Earth with her Expedition 51 colleagues, Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of European Space Agency, in June, but she will now return in September along with NASA’s Jack Fischer and Roscosmos’ Fyodor Yurchikhin.

The extension was possible because Roscosmos has temporarily reduced its ISS crew contribution to two cosmonauts, freeing up a seat on the Soyuz capsule that brings them back to Earth.

Whitson, who left Earth on Nov. 17, is on her third long-duration stay on the ISS. She became the first woman to command the space station in 2008, and come Sunday, will become the first woman to command it twice. She also holds the distinction for being the woman who has done the most spacewalks.