Longest time spent in space (aggregate, female)
- Who
- Peggy Whitson
- What
- 665:22:22:57 year(s):day(s):hour(s):minute(s):second(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable
- When
- 03 September 2017
The cumulative most time spent in space by a female astronaut is 665 days 22 hr 22 min, which was achieved by Peggy Whitson (USA) between 2002 and 2017.
Whitson, who had previously worked as a research chemist at NASA's Johnson Space Centre, started her astronaut training in 1996. She made her first spaceflight as part of the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-111,w hich launched to the International Space Station on 5 June 2002. Her first stay on the ISS lasted for six months. She made took part in another long-term mission to the ISS in 2007. Her longest continuous period of time in space was her 289-day stay on the ISS between 19 November 2016 and 3 September 2017, which was at the time the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman. She is due to return to space in late 2022 or early 2023 as the commander of the privately funded Axiom-2 mission.