. >> reporter: on the other hand, former astronaut peggy whitson sometimes misses space. >> after myghtest push on my bed and expected to float to the bathroom. and i was, like, oh, my, it is going to take a lot more work to get there than that. >> reporter: she spent more time up there than any other american. what is the grand total of days you were in space? >> 665 days. >> reporter: that's like g m prt isble. >> reporter: 20 years of sace station science has yielded hundreds of breakthroughs in weather, aft tron me, and epecially medicine, alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease, and so on. >> the salmonella that gives you food poining,it becamn space. and they could develop a vaccine for that. >> reporter: and worms and mice and rats were also in space. they seem t to like it just fine. >> we can better understand how things work in gravity. >> reporter: but for the humans on board, seeing our home from space is always spectacular. >> you look out the window and you see planet earth, and you see how thin this atmosphere is and how delicate it looks. if you happen to be near a window