NASA astronaut Don Pettit is preparing to venture into space once again, marking his fourth journey to the International Space Station (ISS). Pettit, known for his captivating photography captured while on orbit, will join Soyuz commander Alexey Ovchinin and cosmonaut Ivan Vagner on the Soyuz MS-26 mission. The trio is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 11 at 9:23 p.m. MSK (12:23 p.m. EDT, 1623 UTC).

Pettit's space journey began in November 2003 as a member of Expedition 6, and he last returned from the ISS on July 1, 2012. During a prelaunch interview on August 16, Pettit expressed his excitement about returning to space, referring to it as his "home away from home." He highlighted the ever-changing nature of space exploration, comparing his desire to be in space to that of a cowboy wanting to ride a horse.

Once on board the ISS, Expedition 72 will officially begin, with the departure of the Soyuz MS-25 crew and their commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Tracy Dyson. Pettit, who takes credit for the design of the Expedition 72 mission patch, drew inspiration from the simplicity of the Expedition 1 patch. He aimed to update the design to reflect the current configuration of the space station, including the iROSA solar panel upgrades.

Aside from his photography pursuits, Pettit expressed his eagerness to work with a camera used in videos displayed within the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. He also revealed plans to utilize new lenses optimized for capturing dynamic nighttime images, which recently arrived on station with the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft.

Pettit, who holds the distinction of taking the one millionth photo on the ISS in 2012, expressed his interest in capturing the atmospheric phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement). Despite not capturing it on his previous missions, Pettit hopes to document a large-scale view of the phenomenon during his current mission.

As Pettit returns to the ISS, he will find an advanced station that has undergone more than a decade of development and improvements. Fellow astronauts Mike Barratt and Tracy Dyson, who similarly experienced a 10-year gap in their ISS visits, have reported significant enhancements in the cleanliness, organization, and efficiency of operations on the space station.

In the intermission between his space missions, Pettit has been actively involved in the astronaut office, serving as a technical astronaut on NASA's Gateway program and SpaceX's Human Landing System version of the Starship rocket. However, Pettit expressed that nothing compares to the sensation of personally journeying back to space and described it as being on resonance with his soul.

When asked if this would be his final spaceflight, Pettit simply responded, "No, I like to say, this is my next spaceflight." With his unwavering passion for space exploration and dedication to capturing the wonders of the universe through his lens, Pettit embarks on yet another extraordinary adventure among the stars.