Oldest serving US astronaut returns to Earth on his birthday

Don Pettit has now spent a total of 590 days in space during his four missions

America's oldest serving astronaut Don Pettit has returned to Earth on his 70th birthday.

Don's Soyuz MS-26 space capsule made a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan on Sunday carrying him and two Russian crewmates back from the International Space Station (ISS).

They spent 220 days on the (ISS), orbiting the Earth 3,520 times and it means Don has now spent a total of 590 days in space, over four missions.

Amazingly, he is not the oldest person to fly in orbit - that record belongs to John Glenn, who aged 77 flew on a Nasa mission in 1998.

The first part of the ISS was launched in 1998

Before their departure from the ISS, the crew handed command of the spaceship to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.

Don now needs to get used to being back on Earth and re-adjust to gravity before flying back to Nasa HQ in Texas.

Last month, two Nasa astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, finally returned to Earth after spending more than nine months on board the ISS - instead of the initially planned just eight days.

They flew to the ISS in June 2024 - but technical issues with the spacecraft they used to get to the space station meant they were only able to return to Earth on 18 March this year.