With Moon Rocks in Hand, Parazynski Reaches Mt. Everest Peak

By Nancy Atkinson - May 21, 2009 at 5:46 AM UTC | Space Exploration
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[/caption] We've been following former astronaut Scott Parazynski's attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and now comes the news that he has successfully reached the summit, one year after a back injury forced him to give up his climb. "It was a wonderful experience, though and through," Parazynski said in a Skype interview with Miles O'Brien, "and certainly the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, both physically and mentally." Parazynski brought several objects with him to the world's highest summit, including rocks from the Moon, and remembrances of fallen astronauts. Parazynski is the first astronaut to summit Mt. Everest.

During the climb, Parazynski was doing research. "We'll be collecting data for astrobiologists, looking for extremophile life," Parazynski told Universe Today in an interview before he left for Mt. Everest. "If you understand how extremophiles live, you might be able to understand how life may have once evolved on Mars, or may still exist on Mars." [caption id="attachment_31208" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Scott Parazynski on the summit of Mt. Everest. Credit: OnOrbit.com"]

[/caption] Parazynski tested NASA-derived hardware, taking along a prototype lunar geology camera and other hardware for extreme environments. "Up high on the mountain there are limestone formations, which are wonderful places to look for fossilized life," he said," and we'll also look for melt water and primitive forms of life there; algae lichens, etc. If liquid water exists even for brief periods on Mars it may be in similar conditions to what we'll find on Mt. Everest. We hope to bring samples back for scientists to look at."

Now that he has successfully reached the summit, Parazynski said he won't return to Everest. "Once is enough," he said, adding that his family is glad he now has the bug to climb Everest out of his system.

Check out all the videos of Parazynski's climb at Miles O'Brien's blog at True/ Slant, as well as more images from

Keith Cowing at On Orbit.com.

Congratulations to Scott Parazynski!

And I just had to share this image of Parazynski on the summit after the sun rose. It looks just like Luke Skywalker on the planet Hoth at the beginning of "The Empire Strikes Back." [caption id="attachment_31209" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Scott Parazynski at the summit. Credit: OnOrbit.com"]

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Look for an upcoming special on the Discovery channel about Parazynski's climb.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com