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WHITSON READY TO HEAD BACK INTO SPACE

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FORMER ASTRONAUT AND IOWA NATIVE PEGGY WHITSON WILL COME OUT OF RETIREMENT NEXT MONTH AND RETURN AS THE FIRST FEMALE COMMANDER OF A PRIVATE SPACE MISSION.

WHITSON WILL LEAD A FOUR-MEMBER CREW ON A TEN-DAY MISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ABOARD A SPACE X CAPSULE.

SHE IS A VETERAN OF THREE TRIPS TO ORBIT AND SAYS SHE AND HER CREW HAVE SPENT MONTHS TRAINING FOR THE MISSION AT VARIOUS LOCATIONS.

WHITSON1 OC……..”VERY WELL” :17

AXIOM 2 IS SLATED TO LAUNCH FROM THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER ON MAY 8TH ABOARD A SPACE X CREW DRAGON CAPSULE ATOP A FALCON 9 ROCKET.

WHITSON SAYS THE CREW PLANS MORE THAN 20 DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTS ABOARD THE SPACE STATION:

WHITSON2 OC……… IN THE FUTURE” :16

AXIOM PLANS TO LAUNCH THE FIRST MODULE OF ITS COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION IN 2025. WHITSON, WHO’S 63, RETIRED FROM THE NASA ASTRONAUT CORPS IN 2018.
SHE SAYS SHE’S PARTICULARLY INTRIGUED BY ONE OF THE EXPERIMENTS.

WHITSON3 OC……”EXTRA MATRIX” :16

WHITSON HOLDS THE RECORD AMONG AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS AND WOMEN FOR THE NUMBER OF DAYS IN SPACE AT 665.

SHE WAS THE FIRST FEMALE COMMANDER OF THE I-S-S AND THE ONLY WOMAN TO SERVE AS ITS COMMANDER TWICE.

WHITSON ALSO HOLDS THE RECORD FOR MOST SPACEWALKS BY A WOMAN AT TEN, AND DURING HER LAST MISSION, BECAME THE OLDEST WOMAN IN SPACE.