Iowa’s Peggy Whitson to command historic international mission to space station

Iowa native and prolific astronaut — first with NASA for three decades and recently as director of human space flight for Axiom Space — Peggy Whitson again is celestial bound as commander of a mission to the International Space Station.

Whitson — who’ll turn 65 in February — will lead a crew of four astronauts representing India, Poland and Hungary on the mission scheduled to launch “no earlier than spring 2025,” according to Axiom Space, headquartered in Houston.

The expedition — called Ax-4 — will mark the first government-sponsored human spaceflight in more than 40 years for the three other countries represented in the crew, which has been training for the mission with NASA, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation.

“While Ax-4 marks these countries' second human spaceflight mission in history, it will be the first time all three nations will execute a mission on board the International Space Station,” according to Axiom. “This historic mission underscores how Axiom Space is redefining the pathway to low-Earth orbit and elevating national space programs globally.”

Although crew members are pending official approval to fly to the International Space Station from NASA and partners, including the Russian Space Agency, Japanese Space Agency, European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency, Axiom has said the 2025 mission anticipates docking for two weeks at the space station.

While there, the crew will perform research and technology demonstrations and investigate the “commercialization of space.” The mission also intends to “foster cooperation by sharing knowledge, resources, and opportunities with our partners, solidifying these nations as leaders within the growing space community.”

The Ax-4 mission will mark Whitson’s second commercial human spaceflight with Axiom — after amassing 665 days in space with NASA, which she served from 1989 to 2018 as a research biochemist, project scientist, division chief, astronaut, commander and eventually NASA chief of the Astronaut Office, among other roles.

She joined Axiom after retiring from NASA, and in May 2023 commanded Axiom 2 in its launch from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station — where it docked for eight days before splashing back into the Gulf of Mexico.

“I look forward to commanding my second commercial human spaceflight mission with Axiom Space,” Whitson said in a statement, highlighting the goal of furthering international collaboration. “Our previous missions set the stage. Axiom Mission 1 was the first all-private mission to the space station; Axiom Mission 2 launched the first Saudi female to space; and Axiom Mission 3 included both the first Turkish astronaut and first (European Space Agency) astronaut to fly on a commercial space mission.

“Now, with Ax-4, we ascend even higher, bringing even more nations to low-Earth orbit and expanding humanity’s reach among the stars.”

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‘More than any other’

Whitson was born and raised on a farm near Beaconsfield in the 1960s, and she told The Gazette in 2021 she was inspired to become an astronaut at age 9 after watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin make history in 1969 with their moon landing.

A decade later, she sold chickens at $2 apiece to pay for flying lessons. After getting a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Iowa Wesleyan College and a doctorate from Rice University in 1986, Whitson started working at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

She was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1996 and joined NASA’s Expedition 5 crew in summer 2002, docking for six months at the International Space Station. During that expedition, Whitson was named first NASA science officer, conducting 21 investigations and logging 184 days in space.

Her second trip aboard Expedition 16 launched in October 2007 and involved several space walks — bringing her total time spent outside a space craft to nearly 40 hours. During her third expedition, which launched in November 2016, Whitson broke the record for longest time spent in space by any NASA astronaut — landing her an interstellar phone call from then-President Donald Trump.

She returned from her final NASA expedition on September 2017 and joined Axiom — initially as a consultant — after retiring from NASA.

With her first Axiom mission, Whitson became the first female commander of a private space mission — adding to her claims as first female commander of the International Space Station; only woman to serve as its commander twice; and first female, non-military chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office.

In total, Whitson has accrued 675 days in space, more than any other American astronaut or woman in the world.

The Ax-4 crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.

‘Hopefully have some influence’

As keynote speaker for The Gazette’s annual Iowa Ideas conference in 2021, Whitson had not yet commanded her first commercial space expedition aboard Ax-2 and said she didn’t necessarily think she’d get the opportunity.

“I really didn’t anticipate the commercial industry would come back soon enough for me to have opportunities to fly again,” according to Whitson, who said she couldn’t have added any more fly time with NASA because she’d reached its cap for radiation exposure.

“So this is really icing on the cake,” she told The Gazette about her upcoming commercial flight at the time.

Finding herself in the new territory of commercial space flight, Whitson stressed the importance of expecting the unexpected.

“We do training in various simulations,” she said. “We have every kind of malfunction and failure thrown at us in the International Space Station. So we practice being on fire, depressurization and toxic atmosphere — all things you never want to experience.

“But if you go through the training enough and you understand your roles, you understand what you can do, it gives you a sense of security that if a bad day happens, I would at least know what I'm supposed to do,” she said.

As to the future, Whitson in 2021 said the commercial side of space flight is just beginning — and she’s excited to be on the cusp of it.

“There are lots of new venues developing in space, and to me this is kind of like the transition from barnstorming to commercial aviation,” she said. “We are kind of in that phase, that transition. And I think it's really exciting to be a part of that, to see this change happen, and hopefully have some influence.”

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com