Take that, dudes: Female astronaut breaks record for most time spent in space.

Peggy Whitson is a total badass.
 By 
Miriam Kramer
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Stand up and take notice of NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.

Not only is Whitson the first woman to command the International Space Station twice, she's the oldest woman to fly to space for NASA, and we think she might be the record holder for most records set in space (though we don't know that for sure).

On Monday morning, Whitson beat out every single one of NASA's male astronauts to become the overall record holder for the most cumulative time spent in space for any space agency astronaut in history.

"It is one of those rides that you hope never ends," Whitson said in a tweet posted the day before she broke the record. "I am so grateful for all those who helped me on each of my missions!"

Whitson broke the record at 1:27 a.m. ET when she accumulated 534 days, 2 hours, and 49 minutes of spaceflight time, according to NASA, officially beating out Jeff Williams' record of 534 days, 2 hours, and 48 minutes.

Whitson will receive a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump on Monday. You can watch the call live via NASA at 10 a.m. ET in the window below.

Whitson will extend her record further. She isn't expected to come back to Earth until September, meaning that by the time her feet touch solid ground again, she'll have spent more than 650 days in space over the course of her lifetime.

This spaceflight marks Whitson's third long-duration stint on the Space Station. Her first was in 2002, only two years after the station started continuously hosting rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts, and her second trip took place in 2008.

Breaking records long-held by men is nothing new for Whitson.

She became the first woman to head up NASA's astronaut office in 2009, and she became the first female commander of the Space Station during her 2008 trip to orbit.

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Miriam Kramer

Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.

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