NASA's Peggy Whitson breaks another space record because this is just what she does
Congratulations to NASA's Peggy Whitson on shattering yet another space record. At this point, though, you're starting to make us all feel bad about ourselves.
Moments ago @AstroPeggy broke yet another record when she became the first woman to command the space station twice! pic.twitter.com/g4Hp9ev7kS
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) April 9, 2017 " data-ga-click="1" data-ga-label="$text" data-ga-item="text-link" data-ga-module="content_body">NASA announced that Astronaut Peggy Whitson had broken yet another record for being the first woman to command the International Space Station twice. In 2008, Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station.But this isn't the only record that Whitson has broken. In fact, it's almost impossible to keep track of 56-year-old Whitson's spaceflight records.
On April 5, NASA revealed that Whitson was poised to break the record for the cumulative time spent in space by an American astronaut. The standing record is 534 cumulative days in space, held by NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams.
Whitson is set to cruise by that milestone on April 24. Since she's not scheduled to return to Earth until September, her cumulative time spent in space record will be difficult for future astronauts to beat.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, and NASA signed an agreement to extend Whitson's time in space by three months. While two of her male crew mates will return to Earth in June, Whitson will stay on board the station until September.
Whitson also holds the record for the greatest number of spacewalks by a female astronaut. She will likely extend this record by September as well.
We're all very proud of you, Peggy, and we're trying to be very cool about it. It's probably not working.
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.