Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrates 70th birthday while hurtling back to Earth

Don Pettit became a septuagenarian as he landed back on Earth after a seven-month mission onboard the International Space Station. Pettit and Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner touched down in a remote area south-east of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 6.20am on Sunday. The astronauts spent their time on the ISS researching areas such as water sanitisation technology, plant growth under various conditions and fire behaviour in microgravity, Nasa said Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrates 70th birthday with return to Earth