NASA’s oldest astronaut, Don Pettit, is coming home from the International Space Station (ISS) on April 19, the day he turns 70. 

While on the ISS, Mr. Pettit completed more than 3,520 orbits around Earth. This was his fourth mission in space, following earlier trips during Expedition 6, Expedition 30/31, and a flight aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

On this latest mission alone, he spent 220 days in space, pushing his total time among the stars to an incredible 590 days.

Throughout his time aboard the ISS, Mr. Pettit captured and shared amazing sights from space. He posted photos and videos of auroras, lightning storms, and glowing city lights on social media.

In one popular video shared on X (formerly Twitter), he showed Starlink satellites flying in formation, looking like lines of lights across the night sky. Another video showed the ISS turning around in space, giving viewers a fantastic view of the Northern Lights.

He also posted a video of an aurora appearing between Australia and Antarctica. In the caption, he wrote: "Aurora seen today from @Space_Station while orbit was passing between Australia and Antarctica; photographer @astro_jannicke now on the private FRAM2 space mission will be having an even better view in their polar orbit."

In another post, Mr. Pettit showed strange flashes of light happening high above the Amazon rainforest during thunderstorms. These rare sights, called Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), include Sprites and Blue Jets, which are kinds of lightning that shoot upward into space.

He explained the video with this caption:
 "OK, this is kind of out there and caters to your inner Uber-Geek. Nadir view of Transient Luminous Events (TLE ) or upper atmospheric lightning."


 He added that the video showed real-time lightning flashes over just six seconds, viewed from above.

 

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