Beaconsfield, IA: Former astronaut Peggy Whitson is coming out of retirement next month to become the first female commander of a private space mission. Whitson, a native of Iowa who grew up on a farm near Beaconsfield, just north of the Missouri line, will be leading a four-member crew on a ten-day mission to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX capsule. Already a veteran of three trips to orbit, Whitson says she and her crew have spent months training for the mission.–A northwestmoinfo.com report