(Radio Iowa) – Iowa native astronaut Peggy Whitson and her three-member crew are now halfway through their two-week research mission aboard the International Space Station. This is Whitson’s fifth visit to the orbiting laboratory, while her teammates — from India, Hungary and Poland — are all rookies. The 65-year-old from Beaconsfield was asked in an Axiom Space interview how the new astronauts have adapted to working in weightlessness. “They’re doing great. Everybody is really busy,” Whitson says. “We’re getting a lot of science research done and managing to have a good time in the meantime.” Ax-4 is the fourth mission to the space station for the private, Houston-based firm, which aims to build its own space station in the coming few years. Whitson says they have a full slate of about 60 experiments on their to-do list.

“We have investigations from the four different countries and we’re just doing a wide variety of things,” Whitson says. “My favorite is the Cancer in Low Earth Orbit study. ‘Shux’ (Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla) has already started his muscle stem cell growth study, looking at how muscles change in space, because we know our muscles atrophy unless we are working out a lot, every day.” Another Ax-4 experiment is designed to test how a person with diabetes would be affected by spaceflight, as regulations now keep diabetics from orbit due to so many unknowns. “We just finished an ultrasound investigation, looking at the cardiovascular system, how it changes in space, and ‘Suave’ (Polish astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski) has been doing also a lot of different experiments,” Whitson says. “He did one on muscle stimulation where they were stimulating his muscles to see if that’s going to impact or affect and improve his ability to retain muscle during spaceflight.”

Peggy Whitson, front left, poses with the ISS crew (Photo from NASA-TV)

Whitson was asked if she’d brought along anything personal from Earth to remind her of home and loved ones while she’s 250 miles up. “I brought something that I’ve brought for every space mission, and if I can find it — a necklace — here, and it’s the necklace my husband gave me when we got married,” Whitson says, “and this is the fifth time it’s been in space.” This is Whitson’s second mission with Axiom Space, following three NASA missions before she retired from the agency in 2018. Considered the United States’ most experienced astronaut, Whitson has now spent some 683 days in space, more than any other American.

The Ax-4 crew is due to undock from the I-S-S in about another week and return home.