Peggy Whitson’s career as an astronaut has been trailblazing: With a total of 665 days in space, Whitson not only currently holds the space endurance record in the U.S., she is eighth on that list overall. She was the first woman astronaut to hold NASA’s chief astronaut position, has completed a total of 10 spacewalks over the course of her career, and commanded the International Space Station twice.
On May 16, Whitson received the 2019 Women in Space Science award from the Adler Planetarium’s Women’s Board in recognition of her accomplishments in the United States’ space program and as a woman in the field of science and technology. The annual award ceremony hosted by the Women’s Board also doubles as a fundraiser supporting the planetarium’s many and varied science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) efforts for Chicago youth (in particular, young women), who, as Whitson stresses, are living during an exciting time when the industry is rife with opportunities to build the future of space flight from the ground up.
