Welcome Home! Dulaney Grad Returns from Space Station

Astronaut Reid Wiseman—a Dulaney High School alum—is back on Earth after 166 days in space.

On Tuesday, Wiseman tweeted that he was “home sweet home” and “can’t wait to hug my kids!”

During his nearly six-month journey, Wiseman—who grew up in Cockeysville and graduated in the class of 1993 at Dulaney—used Twitter to stay connected to his growing fan base on Earth.

“Two and a half years ago, I really didn’t even know what Twitter was,” Wiseman said in an interview with NASA. “I’m one of the first rookies to do a long-duration space flight, and I really wanted to share that.”

This was Wiseman’s first trip into space since completing astronaut training in 2011. Aboard the International Space Station for nearly six months, he was a flight engineer for Expedition 41 and sent out hundreds of photos and videos showing Earth from a vantage point that most people would never see firsthand.

“What is it like be up there? What is it like to be weightless and to look down at the Earth...? “ he said in the NASA interview, explaining what he hoped to convey through Twitter. “I just wanted to tell that story from my point of view—and .... I think it was successful.”

To say, “’I will miss this’ would be the #understatement of my life,” Wiseman tweeted last week, before landing in Kazakhstan Sunday.

In recent days, Wiseman has been making his way around the globe to get back to the U.S. The crew was greeted with a ceremony in Kazakhstan Sunday following a medical check, according to WBAL. After that, Wiseman planned to travel to Scotland and then NASA’s Houston base, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Tuesday was reason to celebrate for the astronaut, since it was his 39th birthday and Veterans Day; Wiseman was a Navy aviator and veteran combat fighter pilot who graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 2004.

Screenshot of Reid Wiseman from NASA/YouTube.

Related:

• Maryland Astronaut Sends First Vine from Space
• Dulaney High School Alumnus to Launch into Space
• Baltimore County Astronaut Soars as Twitter Sensation