Peggy Whitson

Peggy Annette Whitson (born February 9, 1960) is an American biochemistry researcher, and astronaut working for Axiom Space. She retired from NASA in 2018, after serving as Chief Astronaut. Over all her missions, Whitson accumulated a total of 675 days in space, more than any other American or woman.

Her first NASA space mission was in 2002: an extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a crew member of Expedition 5. On her second mission, Expedition 16 in 2007-2008, she became the first woman to command the ISS. In 2009, she became the first woman to serve as NASA's Chief Astronaut, the most senior position in the NASA Astronaut Corps. In 2017, Whitson became the first woman to command the International Space Station twice. Her 289-day flight was the longest single space flight by a woman until Christina Koch's 328-day flight.

Whitson holds the records for the oldest woman spacewalker and the most spacewalks by a woman. Whitson's cumulative EVA time is 60 hours, 21 minutes, which places her in fifth place for total EVA time. At age 57 on her final NASA flight, she was the oldest woman ever in space at that time - a record broken in a 2021 sub-orbital flight by Wally Funk. She is still the oldest woman to orbit the Earth, a record she broke in 2023, at 63.

On June 15, 2018, Whitson retired from NASA. She later became a consultant for Axiom Space. She served as the commander of Axiom Mission 2 and will be the commander of Axiom Mission 4.

Whitson was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.