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Early Monday morning, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson set a new record for the longest time in space for any US astronaut, hitting a landmark 534 cumulative days in orbit. Fellow astronaut Jeff Williams set the previous record only last year.
Dr. Whitson will continue to extend the new record for the duration of her stay as current commander on the International Space Station, ultimately to more than 650 cumulative days, setting a high bar for those looking to break her record.
This is not the first time Whitson has made NASA history, however. The astronaut and biochemist also became the first woman commander of the ISS in 2007 and the first woman to command the station twice, earlier this year. She is also the oldest US woman to have completed a spacewalk, and has done more spacewalks than any other female NASA astronaut.
It's not just girls who are inspired by accomplishments like Dr. Whitson's.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @04:32PM
This the reason why I donate to support girls education, particularly in those countries with heavily "theocratic systems". If all goes to plan I am hoping that within the next ten to twenty years there will literally be tens of thousands of Malala Yousafzais [wikipedia.org], each one demanding that they be given equal access to education. I'm sure it will scare the theocrats shitless!