The United States' most experienced astronaut has hung up her flight suit.
Peggy Whitson, who has spent 675 days in space over the course of four missions — three for NASA and one commercial — came to Space Center Houston on Monday (Jan. 8) for the reveal of her Axiom Space flight suit as it was placed on public display. She wore the emblem-adorned, blue and black garment as the commander of Ax-2, the second all-private astronaut flight to the International Space Station (ISS), which was organized by Axiom in 2023.
"I am just loaning it so folks can see that commercial space, like Axiom, is in work now and is real," said Whitson, noting that her days of launching into space are not over. "I wanted people to be able to see it and be inspired by not just NASA's space program, but what commercial space is doing as well."
Unlike her NASA-issued, bright blue flight suits, which she primarily wore when flying the agency's training jets and when making public appearances, Whitson donned the Ax-2 suit in space. She and her three Ax-2 crewmates — two representatives of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and an American businessman —were all issued similar garments for the eight days they were on board the space station.
"It's the one I wore to enter the space station," Whitson said in an interview with collectSPACE.com.
Related: Facts about Axiom Space's Ax-2 astronaut mission to the space station
