In photos: Record-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson

Expedition 16

Veteran NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson places her mission patch on the International Space Station during the Expedition 16 mission.

Expedition 50

Expedition 50 crew members Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough of NASA take a selfie during robotics training inside the cupola of the International Space Station.

Peggy Whitson Christmas socks

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson dons a Santa hat and Christmas socks in weightlessness to celebrate the holidays on the International Space Station on Dec. 22, 2016.

Prepping for the Dragon

International Space Station astronauts Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet take part in a video conference with ground control to prepare for the robotic capture of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft that launched on Feb. 19, 2017.

Football fan

NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson (left) and Shane Kimbrough talk Super Bowl LI and life in space in this video still from a live NASA event on Feb. 1, 2017. The astronauts watched the 2017 Super Bowl from space.

Spacewalk smile

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson during a spacewalk in 2008.

Expedition 50

Expedition 50 official crew portrait with (from left) Andrei Borisenko, Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov, Thomas Pesquet, Peggy Whitson and Oleg Novitsky.

Expedition 50/51 crew portrait

Astronauts Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency), Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Peggy Whitson of NASA pose for a group photo at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia during qualification exams for their Expedition 50/51 mission to the International Space Station.

Expedition 50 boards the Soyuz

The Expedition 50 crewmembers wave farewell as they board the Soyuz spacecraft 2.5 hours before liftoff.

Seconds to launch

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet and cosmonaut Oleg Navitskiy hold hands as the countdown approaches launch time.