Whitson, Peggy Annette (1960-…), is an American astronaut who set many records during her career with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She has completed the most spacewalks of any woman, at 10, and spent the most total days in space of any American, at 665. Whitson was the first woman to command the International Space Station (ISS). By the time she completed her last NASA mission at age 57, she had become the world’s oldest woman astronaut.
NASA selected Whitson to be an astronaut in 1996. In 2002, she spent six months aboard the ISS, performing several spacewalks (also called extravehicular activities) to help assemble the station. During this time, NASA appointed her as the station’s science officer. She was the first person to serve in the position. In 2007, she embarked on another six-month mission to the ISS, serving as the station’s first female commander and overseeing its further expansion. She began another tour at the station in late 2016, again serving as commander.
Before Whitson was selected to be an astronaut, she performed a variety of roles for NASA, starting in 1989. From 1992 to 1995, for example, she was the project scientist of the Shuttle-Mir Program, which coordinated the docking of NASA space shuttles with the Russian space station Mir. In 2003, she commanded the fifth NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) expedition on the ocean floor off the coast of Florida. Inside the NEEMO habitat, Whitson and her crewmates simulated future piloted space missions. Whitson was chief of NASA’s Astronaut Corps from 2009 to 2012, the first woman to serve in that role. Whitson currently serves as the director of human spaceflight for the private spaceflight company Axiom Space.
Whitson was born on Feb. 9, 1960, in Mount Ayr, Iowa, southwest of Des Moines. She grew up on a farm close to the neighboring town of Beaconsfield. She attended Iowa Wesleyan College, graduating summa cum laude (with highest honors) with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and chemistry in 1981. She earned a doctorate degree in biochemistry from Rice University in 1985.
