One of Iowa’s space heroes is adding another honor to her long list of accomplishments. Peggy Whitson was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in a weekend ceremony in Washington D-C. Whitson still holds the record for the number of days accumulated by any American or woman in space — at 695. The Beaconsfield native flew three long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station. After the third mission in 2017, during which she broke the endurance record, Whitson was asked how it felt to join the ranks of other legendary space explorers.
In 2009, Whitson became the first woman to serve as NASA’s chief astronaut, the most senior position in the NASA Astronaut Corps. After retiring from NASA in 2018, Whitson returned to space as commander of Axiom 2 in 2023, and Axiom 4 in 2025. Other Hall of Fame inductees include: Shannon Lucid, one of the first women to join NASA’s astronaut corps, and Captain C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger, who successfully piloted U.S. Airways Flight 1549 to a landing in the Hudson River in 2009, saving all 165 passengers on board.
