Iowa native Peggy Whitson among 2025 Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees

For her decades of space flight and research with NASA and now with Axiom Space, Iowa native and prolific astronaut Peggy Whitson will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation announced Tuesday.

Whitson will be joined by fellow veteran NASA astronaut Bernard Harris as 2025 inductees into the Kennedy Space Center-based Hall of Fame — which includes 109 other NASA-trained space shuttle commanders, pilots, mission specialists and engineers who have “orbited the Earth at least once.”

“The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame welcomes two exceptional and trailblazing veterans of the space program who contributed significantly to NASA’s mission and program,” Astronaut Scholarship Foundation board Chair Curt Brown said in a statement, noting both Whitson and Harris “continue to serve as exemplary role models in their post-NASA careers.”

Inspired to space flight as a child in southern Iowa’s Beaconsfield — where she was captivated by the moon landing in 1969 — Whitson over her nearly four decades of space and science experience has flown on three NASA long-duration flights and commanded Axiom Mission 2.

She’s accumulated 675 days in space — more than any other American astronaut or female astronaut in the world — and at age 64 is scheduled to command her second commercial human space mission this spring to the International Space Station via the Axiom Mission 4.

During her NASA expeditions, Whitson conducted 10 spacewalks — amassing more than 60 hours “walking” in the vacuum of space while tethered to a spacecraft — and performed hundreds of research experiments, contributing to biology, biotechnology, physical and Earth science.

She’s held a variety of NASA positions over her career — including chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office, commander of the International Space Station, chair of NASA’s astronaut selection board, NASA operations branch chief, NASA deputy division chief and cochair of the U.S./Russian Mission Science Working Group.

After retiring from NASA, Whitson joined Axiom and became the first female commander of a private space mission — adding to her list of firsts as first female commander of the International Space Station and first female chief of the Astronaut Office.

Earning degrees in biology and chemistry from Iowa Wesleyan University, along with a doctorate in biochemistry from Rice University, Whitson has received a range of honors — including various NASA medals in leadership, outstanding leadership and exceptional service; the National Air and Space Museum’s lifetime achievement award; Forbes 50 Over 50; Glamour’s Woman of the Year; TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World; and the Women in Aviation Lifetime Achievement Award.

Harris — like Whitson — logged his own firsts, including in 1995 when he became the first African American to perform an “extra-vehicular activity” outside a space craft during the second of his two space flights.

Born in Texas, Harris served as both a mission specialist and payload commander — logging more than 438 hours and traveling more than 7.2 million miles in space — during a 30-year career, according to the scholarship foundation, which serves as a consultant for the Hall of Fame.

Founded more than three decades ago by the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts, the Hall of Fame in 2016 debuted in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as part of a “Heroes & Legends” attraction. A ceremony and gala to celebrate Whitson and Harris as 2025 inductees is planned at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on May 31.

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