NASA’s Oldest Astronaut Reports That Something Strange Happened to His Body When He Went to Space

On his 70th birthday, America's oldest full-time astronaut touched down back on Earth after spending 220 days on the International Space Station — and according to him, he didn't feel his age at all up there.

As Ars Technica and other outlets report, NASA astronaut Don Pettit was jovial during his first press appearance since coming back down to Earth on April 20 — though admittedly, it'd been a few days since he'd vomited all over the Kazakh steppes where the Russian Soyuz rocket that brought him home touched down.

Coming back to Earth after the weightlessness of space had always been a "significant challenge," Pettit told the press earlier this week at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. With nearly 30 years as an astronaut under his belt, Pettit is an old hand at the ravages of returning to gravity, and with his latest spaceflight, he's now cumulatively spent 590 days — or more than 18 months — on board the ISS.

Given his age and the ways zero gravity changes one's body, it's no surprise that Pettit looked a little worse for the wear when he got back to Earth on Easter Sunday — and he acknowledged that in photos and videos taken of him as he was being carried down those Kazakh mountains, he "didn't look too good because I didn't feel too good."

Up in space, however, everything was different.

"A week ago, I was on station, and I was doing really heavy squats, I was doing dead lifts, I could float around with the greatest of ease, even though I had no trapeze. I was at the peak of my game," Pettit recalled. "And then you come back to Earth, and it's like, God, I can't even get up from the floor anymore. It's humbling."

Though he's happy to be back home on terra firma, the astronaut couldn't help but wax poetic about his time on the space station.

"I love being in space," Pettit continued. "When you're sleeping, you're just floating, and your body, all those little aches and pains heal up. You feel like you're 30 years old again and free of pain, free of everything."

Despite being NASA's oldest living astronaut, Pettit isn't the oldest person to ever take a spaceflight. That distinction is technically tied between "Star Trek" luminary William Shatner and former Air Force captain Ed Dwight, who were both 90 years old when they shot up into space and back down to Earth on Blue Origin capsules in 2021 and 2024, respectively.

And former NASA astronaut John Glenn was 77 when he went to the space shuttle in 1998 to conduct experiments on aging in zero-gravity — but as Pettit notes, he only spent nine days up there. By the younger astronaut's reckoning, he's the oldest person to spend as long as he did in space during his most recent trip.

Though he's giving his body time to rest and readjust to its home planet, Pettit told reporters that he knows space will start calling to him again soon.

"I’ve got a few more good years left," the astronaut said. "I could see getting another flight or two in before I’m ready to hang up my rocket nozzles."

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