Astronaut Peggy Whitson has broken the record for the most cumulative days in space for an American by more than 500 days.

  • Peggy Whitson has been in space for 535 days
  • She is also the oldest woman to go into space
  • Whitson is expected to return to Earth in September

Early Monday morning, the 57-year-old Whitson, who is also the oldest woman to go into space, marked her 535th cumulative day in space. Whitson beat astronaut Jeff Williams’ 534 days in orbit and is expected to surpass her own record when she returns to Earth in September.

“It’s a real honor, privilege to be able to have the record and to represent NASA that way,” Whitson said from aboard the International Space Station.

This is Whitson’s third long-duration stay on board the ISS. In 2008, she became the first woman to command the space station.

She is also the current commander of the space station, the first woman to hold command twice.

Whitson, who has a doctorate in biochemistry, says conducting hundreds of experiments is the reason she keeps coming back to space.

“I’m not here because of the record. But I think having the record is important for NASA because we have to continue to progress, we have to continue to take the next steps in order for us in the future, in exploration in going to Mars, we have to understand how our body reacts, how our hardware reacts, what things work well in space, what things don’t. We want to answer those questions,” Whitson said.

The Iowa-native still has several more months in orbit before she heads home. Whitson was supposed to come back to Earth in June, but NASA has pushed that back to September now.

“I would definitely love to go to the moon or Mars, or some other destination,” said Whitson, “The space station has been phenomenal but I’d like to take some of the next steps, I’m not sure if I’ll last that long, but I’ll give it my best.”

President Donald Trump, along with his daughter, Ivanka, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubens congratulated Whitson from the White House.

"On behalf of the nation and frankly on behalf of the world, I'd like to congraduate you. That is really something? I'd like to know: How does it feel to have broken such a big and important record?" Trump asked Whitson.

"Well, it's actually a huge honor to break a record like this, but it's an honor baiscally to be representing all the folks at NASA who make space flight possible, who make me setting this record feasible," she replied.

During the call, the president said he wants to fast track a mission to the Red Planet.

"I think we'll do that a lot sooner than we're even thinking. So which one of you is ready to go to Mars? I think you're ready. We just discussed that. Who's ready to go to Mars up there?" Trump asked.

"it's going to be a fantastic journey getting there and very exciting times," he said.