Dr. Peggy Whitson

Precious few human beings are able to say they’ve been lucky enough to travel to space. Peggy Whitson, however, is in a league of her own. The veteran astronaut has an incredible list of record-breaking accomplishments to her name: first woman to command the International Space Station twice (2008 & 2013); first non-military Chief Astronaut and most spacewalks (10) of any female astronaut, the most spacewalks completed by a woman (at 60 hours, 21 minutes total) and third most of any spacefarer; and at 665 days, Dr. Whitson has spent more time in space than any other American.

Unsurprisingly, behind all of these tremendous accomplishments lies one of the most passionate, knowledgeable, and courageous scientists in the world today. While she was breaking records, Dr. Whitson was also conducting groundbreaking research on a wide breadth of subjects with enormous implications for the future of humanity—robotics and artificial intelligence, medicine, agriculture, logistics, engineering, marine life, and beyond.

Dr. Whitson’s remarkable life story is a thrilling example for others to follow, humble beginnings on a farm to her daring tales of spaceflight and crash landings in the steppes of Kazakhstan, leaving audiences on the edge of their seat. She was named as one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People (2018), was on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, and was one of eight astronauts featured in Darren Aronofsky’s, National Geographic series One Strange Rock.