In photos: Record-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson

Fundoscope

Impaired vision sometimes afflicts visitors to the Space Station. NASA's Peggy Whitson uses the Fundoscope to collect images of the back of her eye during a routine check.

Tangled up

NASA's Peggy Whitson floats among tangled cables inside the Columbus module on the International Space Station.

In the glovebox

The Microgravity Science Glovebox is where astronauts test how gases and liquids behave inside a column of fixed porous material.

Whitson opens the HTV-6

NASA's Peggy Whitson opens the Harmony module hatchway to the HTV-6. The cargo craft was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on Friday, December 9, 2016, for its four-day trip to the ISS.

Food and fun

Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough, Expedition 50 crewmembers, aboard the International Space Station have some fun with fresh fruit delivered by the HTV-6 cargo vehicle in December 2016. These cargo vehicles deliver small amounts of fresh food to the ISS — including fruits and vegetables — on a regular basis.

Passing it on

In the fall of 2016 astronaut Peggy Whitson works with Expedition 49/50 crewmembers Takuya Onishi and Kate Rubins with spacewalk training in preparation for their trip to the International Space Station.

ISS prep

Whitson, Expedition 16 commander, and cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, a flight engineer from Russia's Federal Space Agency, train at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, in September 2007.

Ready and standing by

Astronaut Peggy Whitson signs in at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Star City, Russia, for the Soyuz qualification exams on May 26, 2016, before Expedition 48/49. Whitson was part of the backup crew for the mission that launched on June 24, 2016.

Warm welcome

After the Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station on October 25, 2007, astronaut Peggy Whitson, Expedition 16 commander, greeted Astronaut Pam Melroy, STS-120 commander. Melroy sat in the Orbiter Docking Compartment while Whitson lay in the Pressurized Mating Adapter.

Suited up for space

On September 3, 2002, Whitson, flight engineer for Expedition Five, sits in a docked Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station. She wears a Russian Sokol suit.