Four astronauts will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on a privately funded mission on Wednesday morning, the fourth such flight run by Houston-based Axiom Space.
Who is leading the crew? Of course, Peggy Whitson, the trailblazing American astronaut.
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Who is Peggy Whitson?
Now retired from NASA, Whitson leading a crew composed entirely of first-time space travelers. Her teammates include Shubhanshu Shukla of India, ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu. Together, they are set to launch aboard a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule from Kennedy Space Center at 2:31 a.m. EDT on Wednesday.
With a doctorate in biochemistry and a career at NASA spanning decades, she is already a famed astronaut long before joining Axiom. She holds more cumulative time in space than any other American, 675 days and counting and is the most experienced female astronaut in history.
Whitson was the first female and non-military chief of NASA’s astronaut office and served as the first female commander of the International Space Station. Add to that her ten spacewalks, totalling over 60 hours, and she ranks seventh worldwide for total spacewalking time.
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“I think I’m somewhat addicted to space,” she told CBS News. “I really like being there, and it’s just exhilarating living in an environment so different than what we have here on Earth. And having adapted to that environment, it is fun for me to share my experience with the rookie flyers that are going with me. I get to share in their experience of the first time, all over again.”
Whitson will be ‘conducting some research for Axiom Space’
This two-week mission will see the Ax-4 crew conducting a packed schedule of scientific research, technology demonstrations, and educational outreach, representing their respective countries, India, Poland, and Hungary, on their first visits to the ISS.
“We’ve got a lot of objectives for our mission,” Whitson said. “The first, obviously, is realising the return of these three countries to space… They will have a number of different scientific, technological and educational goals as part of their missions. I will be conducting some research for Axiom Space as well.”
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“We consider ourselves extremely lucky to be flying with Peggy, the best commander we could have wished for,” said Uznański-Wiśniewski.
