An inspiring woman, an outstanding personality, a wonderful idol, a woman walking in space. Peggy Witson is more than a person that should be admired. Her modesty doesn’t allow it. She is a story to remember. She is the American Space Ninja, according to her colleagues. She is a science geek raised in a farm outside Beaconsfield, Iowa, who was rejected 5 times in ten years from the astronaut program of NASA, before she finally got the nod to make the entrance.
Peggy comes from an ordinary backround in Iowa but turned out to be the first woman commander of the space station and the NASA’ s record breaker for longest time spent in space, staying for 665 cumulative days in space, more than any American astronaut, male or female, has ever managed.
56 year old Peggy learned the value of hard work from her parents, Keith and Beth Whitson, who worked all day on their farm. As a little girl, she was very obedient and persevering but it was not until the age of 8 that she was changed forever. Watching Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on her TV, she felt that she was meant to become an astronaut herself and she dedicated her life in achieving this goal. When Whitson was graduating from school, Sally Ride was named as the first female American astronaut and that made her resolve stronger. In 1986 she joined the Johnson Space Center at NASA as a National Research Council Resident Research Associate. For ten years, she was trying to become an astronaut candidate and in 1996 she was finally accepted and underwent two years of rigorous training. At the age of 42, a dream that she had for more than three decades finally came true and she, as a part of Expedition 5 crew, launched aboard STS-111 for the International Space Station. Peggy Witson travelled for the first time into space and five years later she did her second trip to her dreamland, this time as a commander. This fact made her the first female commander ever to lead any space exploration, followed by her last record in April 2017, by surpassing astronaut Jeff Williams’ previous record of the most cumulative days spent in space. Over there, she travelled 122.2 million miles and went round the Earth 4,623 times.
Throughout the years, Whitson was not alone in her desire to become an astronaut. She was always joined by her husband, Clarence F. Sams, who also works for NASA. Peggy loves her husband so much that even though she needs to keep personal items to a minimum when making trips to space, she never takes out her wedding ring.
Peggy Witson is the absolute model of a woman who has gained remarkable learning from her efforts and has made a major contribution to humanity by dedicating her life to science and to achieving her thrilling space goals.
