Astronaut Peggy Whitson returns to Earth September 2 after spending more than nine months aboard the International Space Station and breaking a passel of space records. 

She’s spent more time in space than any other U.S. astronaut, male or female.

Here are some facts to know about the farm girl from Iowa who blazed a trail to the top.

1. She holds a record for days in space: When she returns to Earth in September, Whitson will have spent 665 days in space during three long-duration missions, more than any other U.S. astronaut. Records are nice, she acknowledged, but the record for continual improvement belongs to NASA.

“I feel like the reason I’m here is to do my job, and I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities,” she said. “The records, I think, are important for NASA, to demonstrate what we’re doing, how we’re expanding and what we’re improving on. And that continual improvement, that continual expansion of our records, is an important one for all of us at NASA, not just me.”

2. She’s been in space for a longer continuous duration than any other woman:At age 56, Whitson is the oldest woman to fly in space and she has spent more time there in a single span – 288 days – than any of her sister astronauts.

“I haven’t felt bored since I got here in November last year,” Whitson said from orbit in a July video interview about her latest flight with a representative of the Guinness Book of World Records. “I think if you have the right attitude, you can stay in space for a long period of time, and it’s actually very satisfying and enjoy[able].”

3. She’s walked in space more than any female astronaut: Whitson has completed ten spacewalks, a record for a female astronaut. All in, Whitson has spent an amazing 60 hours and 21 minutes outside her spacecraft, also a record for a female astronaut.

“To be able to float and move around and, pretty much effortlessly, do whatever you want with your body in space is pretty amazing,” she said in her video interview with Guinness Book of World Records. 

4. She’s the first woman to command the ISS – twice: Whitson became the first female commander of the International Space Station in 2008 and in 2017 became the first woman to command it twice.

As a child growing up on a farm in Iowa, she had dreamed of being an airline pilot or astronaut, Whitson said in an interview with Makers, the storytelling platform. Others around her discouraged her from pursuing her dreams because she was a girl, she said – but her mom insisted she could be anything she wanted to be.

5. Space pioneer Sally Ride was her role model:Whitson credits Sally Ride, who became the first female NASA astronaut and the first woman to go into space in 1983, as an inspiration to pursue her dream.

“It became much more motivating to see that there were women [in space], that women could do this job,” she told Makers. “I didn’t tell a lot of people that that’s what I wanted to do, because I thought they’d think I was just dreaming something that’s not even possible.”

6. STEM education – and persistence – helped Whitson reach her goals: After earning an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1981 and her doctorate in biochemistry from Rice University in 1985, Whitson applied to NASA’s astronaut program – and was turned down. She sent in applications and was rejected for ten years before she finally got the call. She flew into space for the first time in 2002.

7. Retirement doesn’t seem to be in the cards: “We’re absolutely very ready to go to Mars, all of us would be very happy to go,” Whitson told President Donald Trump when he called the International Space Station in April to congratulate her on breaking the NASA record for days in space.

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