Astronaut Reaches Top of Everest

(May 20) — Scott Parazynski achieved a milestone early Wednesday, becoming the first astronaut to scale Mount Everest.

Parazynski, a veteran of five space shuttle missions, reached the summit at 4 a.m. local time and stayed on the world's highest peak for about 30 minutes, according to a report from True/Slant by Miles O'Brien, a former news anchor and space reporter for CNN.

The feat must be especially sweet for Parazynski. He tried to summit Everest last year, but a slipped disc in his back foiled his plans. After climbing the peak with his sherpa, Danuru, on Wednesday, Parazynski returned to a camp lower on Everest to rest, O'Brien wrote.

O'Brien's report has lots of material on the climb, including audio of interviews he conducted via Skype with Parazynski and others on the mountain. He also has dozens of photos from the astronaut's time on Everest.

Parazynski's trip wasn't driven purely by the thirst for adventure. He also was on a science mission, setting up instruments to detect evidence of life at the top of the world.

"We're looking for evidence of life in the extreme," Parazynski told Space.com. "Things that can live in the harshest environments on Earth may be the kinds of things that once existed on Mars or other planets."

The astronaut, who left NASA in March, is working with scientists from the space agency to hunt for forms of life such as bacteria and lichens that might live in the thin oxygen on Everest. He also planted sensors to determine if liquid water exists at any time during the day on the peak.