• BIOLOGIST & CHEMIST
• Spent a total of 665 DAYS in space, more than any other American up to that point
• Hired as a biochemist by NASA in 1989
• First applied to be a NASA astronaut in 1986. Her application was rejected. She kept applying every year for the next ten years, when she was finally accepted in 1996.
• Spent the next six years training and preparing for her first space mission, which was on the International Space Station, where she spent six months installing new machinery and conducting experiments
• In 2007 she became the FIRST woman to command the ISS
• Served as commander again during her third ISS mission in 2016, at 56 years old, also making her the OLDEST woman ever to go to space
• Nicknamed the Space Ninja

Photo by NASA [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Dunn, Marcia. (2016, November 17). Peggy Whitson, 56, Becomes the Oldest Woman in Space. https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2016/peggy-whitson-oldest-nasa-astronaut.html
Sherman, Jill. 25 Women Who Thought of it First. North Mankato: Compass Point Books, 2019. Print.

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