US astronaut sets record for longest spaceflight by a woman
Source: AP
A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission.
Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke the record set by former space station commander Peggy Whitson in 2016-2017.
Koch is expected to spend a total of 328 days, or nearly 11 months, on board the space station before returning to Earth. Missions are typically six months, but NASA announced in April that it was extending her mission until February.
The U.S. record for longest space flight is 340 days set by Scott Kelly in 2015-2016. The world record is 15 months set in the 1990s by a Russian cosmonaut aboard the former Mir space station.
FILE - In this Thursday, March 14, 2019 file photo, U.S. astronaut Christina Koch, member of the main crew of the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), speaks with her relatives through a safety glass prior the launch of Soyuz MS-12 space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Koch will set a new record Saturday, Dec. 28, for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission. Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke the record previously set by former space station commander Peggy Whitson in 2016-2017. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, Pool)
Read more: https://apnews.com/ab1478e861bff94bd5d10120d9b3e709
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