Scott Parazynski Becomes First Astronaut to Summit Mt. Everest

Scott Parazynski whose flown in space five times and tried last year to climb Mt. Everest before an injury forced him to give up his bid, today successfully summited Mt. Everest becoming the first astronaut to do so.

Parazynski summited today at 6:15 p.m. eastern time, 4:00 a.m. Nepal time.

Parazynzki’s adventure started on March 22nd when he left Houston starting his trek to Nepal and eventually the summit of Everest. For nearly two months he prepared for this day. Climbing Everest as you may have surmised take quite a lot of preparation. Today he left Camp IV, called the South Col, at an elevation of 7,920 meters (26,000 ft) and trekked to the summit in good time in just over 8hours. The summit at 8,848 meters (29,029 ft). One unique item Parazynski brought with him to the summit were some small moon rocks collected from Apollo 11.

Parazynski stayed at the summit for approximately 15 minutes and started his descent back down Everest.

You can follow Parazynski’s Everest adventure including reading his journal entries, video updates and photos at our companion site OnOrbit.