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The incredible career of NASA’s Peggy Whitson, who applied to become an astronaut 10 times before she broke the American record for space travel

Posted by Michael Lance in food, space travel, sustainability

Jun 17
2018

She retired from NASA on Friday after blazing a trail for countless female astronauts.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the 58-year-old from Iowa farm country who spent a record-breaking 665 days in space, retired from the space agency on Friday.

“I have hit my radiation limit,” Whitson told Business Insider during a recent interview. “So not going into space with NASA anymore.”

That realization is both melancholic and exciting for the biochemist, who only half-jokingly admits she’s still not sure what she’s going to do “when I grow up.”