June 27, 2024

Ringgold County astronaut to return to space

Beaconsfield native Peggy Whitson set several records during her third mission to the International Space Station on Expedition 50/51. With a total of 665 days in space, Whitson holds the U.S. record. The total is more than any other woman worldwide. (NASA photo)

Beaconsfield native Dr. Peggy Whitson returns to space next as the commander of a private space mission, Axiom 2.

The mission is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center at 9:43 p.m. Central time, May 8.

Flying aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, Whitson and three other astronauts will dock with the International Space Station for a 10-day mission. Whitson holds the record among American astronauts and women for the number of days in space, with 665. She served as the first female commander of the International Space Station, and the only woman to serve as an ISS commander twice. She also holds the record for most spacewalks by a woman, with 10.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, Whitson said the crew has been training for months.Other crew members are Pilot John Shoffner of Knoxville, Tennessee, and two Saudi Arabian astronauts.

“We’ve trained at NASA, SpaceX,” said Whitson. “We’ve also trained with the European Space Agency, and the Japanese Space Agency. We’ve done centrifuge training, zero-g flights, outdoor and confined environment flights for team building. So, I really feel that prepared us very well.”

Whitson said the crew plans more than 20 different experiments which include science, outreach and commercial activities.

“Everything from tumorgenensis--which is going to help us predict and prevent cancers with this knowledge we can gain from doing these studies in microgravity,” she said, “all the way to the technology demonstrations that we hope to build and use as part of Axiom’s station in the future.”

Whitson said she is paying close attention to one duty.

“One of the investigations I’m most interested in is an in-space manufacturing investigation,” she said, “looking at how microgravity affects nanoparticle assembly of potential development of cartilage. I don’t know about everybody in the audience, but my knees could use a little bit of that extra matrix.”

Axiom plans to launch the first module of its commercial space station in 2025.

Creston