NASA astronaut on verge of becoming oldest woman in space
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NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is on the verge of becoming the oldest woman in space. Whitson will be 56 when she rockets off the planet Thursday. She'll celebrate her 57th birthday in February on the International Space Station.
"I love working at NASA, but the part that has been the most satisfying on a day-to-day basis, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute, has been working on board the space station," Whitson told reporters over the summer. "It doesn't matter if I'm cleaning the filters. I feel like I'm helping personally push forward exploration. ... that's the why I want to go again."
Strict when it comes to lifetime radiation exposure, NASA insisted Whitson remain Earth-bound for a while after her 2008 mission. "I would have rather gone sooner, but I'll deal with it," she said.
