An astronaut and passionate photographer is returning to space for the fourth time on Wednesday. NASA astronaut Don Pettit first traveled to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 6 in November 2003 and last returned from a trip to the orbital station on July 1, 2012.
Pettit will depart for the ISS again on the Soyuz MS-26 mission on Wednesday, September 11, along with Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and fellow cosmonaut Ivan Vagner. This will be the fourth flight for Ovchinin and the second for Vagner.
Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is scheduled for 21:23 MSK (12:23 EDT, 1623 UTC).
During pre-launch interviews on August 16, Pettit described being in space as his “home away from home.”
“Every time you go to space, it’s a little different. Things have changed since your last visit,” Pettit said. “Like a cowboy who wants to be on a horse at the shooting range, I’m an astronaut who needs to be sitting on a rocket and flying in space.”
Once in orbit, the space station will transition from Expedition 71 to Expedition 72. This will be made official with the departure of Soyuz MS-25 and its crew: Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Tracy Dyson.
Pettit takes credit for the design of the mission patch that will represent Expedition 72. He said he was inspired by the simplicity of the Expedition 1 patch, which led to the next design.
“I asked NASA’s graphic designer to make an Expedition 1-type patch, one that was round instead of rectangular, but updated the configuration of the space station,” Pettit said. “And he did, Sean Collins did. And he even placed the iROSA solar array enhancements on the station’s profile in their proper location. So I like the simplicity of this patch.”
Expedition 72 begins in September, about a week after it docks in @Space_Station with my Soyuz crew.
When designing this mission patch, I wanted something simple and based on the Expedition 1 model, which had a front profile view of the space station configuration at the time.
This… image.twitter.com/Cu7QWT2Pgt
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) June 5, 2024
Among Pettit's contributions to the astronaut office since his selection in 1996 is his striking photography taken while in orbit. One of his goals will be to work with the camera used in the videos shown at the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.
He said he also hopes to advance the ability to take more dynamic nighttime images while in orbit.
“I’ve actually convinced NASA to use a new set of lenses, highly optimized for night imaging, that just arrived on station with NG-21,” Pettit said, referring to Northrop Grumman’s recently launched Cygnus spacecraft. “I look forward to putting these lenses optimized for night imaging to use.”
Pettit also has the distinction of taking the one millionth photo on the ISS in 2012. He said his goal when he returns is not to hit a number, but to capture “interesting phenomena.”
“A phenomenon that has recently emerged that I really want to see if I can capture is this atmospheric phenomenon, typically associated with the aurora, called Steve “(Strong enhancement of thermal emission rate),” Pettit explained. “I’ve been looking back at my Expedition 30/31 images to see if I inadvertently captured STEVE. So far, I haven’t seen any images with STEVE from either my mission or subsequent missions, so I’m looking forward to seeing if I can actually capture a large-scale view of the STEVE phenomenon.”
One of my star trails @Space_Stationblurring the golden lights of the city with the arching stars of deep space.
Compositions like this are made from many images, creating a temporal history of terrestrial and cosmic phenomena that maps our universe in terms of time. The blue marks of… image.twitter.com/w1lK39HFuP
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) June 1, 2024
Pettit will return to an International Space Station that has been developed more than a decade earlier. He said he turned to NASA astronauts Mike Barratt and Tracy Dyson for input as fellow passengers who have also been away from the International Space Station for more than 10 years.
“I was surprised by their response. They said the station is cleaner, more organized, and the software tools we have for storage and inventory management and even our days of operation on schedule are much more efficient than what we had in the past,” Pettit said.
“They were impressed with the efficiency of the operation on the space station compared to what it was like 10, 12, and in some cases 14 years ago.”
During his time between missions, Pettit has been busy with duties within the astronaut office, including his role as a technical astronaut working on NASA's Gateway program and the Human Landing System version of SpaceX's Starship rocket.
But he said there's nothing that can replace the feeling of actually traveling into space.
“There is a facet of my journey into space that fundamentally resonates with my soul,” Pettit said. “I feel very fortunate and I am happy and excited to have another opportunity to fly into space.”
Asked if this will be his last space flight, Pettit simply replied, “No, I like to say this is my next space flight.”
