{"id":12745,"date":"2019-12-30T21:26:18","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T13:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/koch-marks-record-stay-in-space-for-female-astronaut\/"},"modified":"2019-12-30T21:26:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T13:26:18","slug":"koch-marks-record-stay-in-space-for-female-astronaut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/koch-marks-record-stay-in-space-for-female-astronaut\/","title":{"rendered":"Koch marks record stay in space for female astronaut"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

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NASA astronaut Christina Koch works with an experiment on the International Space Station in this Dec. 22 photo. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronaut Christina Koch, launched to the International Space Station in March, marks her 289th day in space Saturday, breaking retired astronaut Peggy Whitson\u2019s world record for the longest single spaceflight by a female.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Koch has participated in four spacewalks, joining astronaut Jessica Meir for history\u2019s first all-female excursion in October. She plans to venture back outside twice more in January, again teaming up with Meir, to complete installation of new solar array batteries.<\/p>\n

When Koch returns to Earth Feb. 6, her time in space will stand at 328 days, just 12 shy of retired astronaut Mark Kelly\u2019s U.S. single-flight record, set in 2016. The all-time record \u2014 438 days \u2014 was set by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov in 1995. Whitson still holds the U.S. record for total time in space \u2014 nearly 666 days \u2014 over five flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecords are made to be broken,\u201d Whitson tweeted Saturday. \u201cIt is a sign of progress! Congrats @Astro_Christina\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge honor,\u201d Koch said early Friday in an interview with \u201cCBS This Morning.\u201d \u201cPeggy is a heroine of mine who\u2019s also been kind enough to mentor me through the years. You know \u2026 it\u2019s not so much how many days you\u2019re up here, but what you do with each of those days. That reminds me to bring my best every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koch holds a master\u2019s in electrical engineering, is a veteran of multiple research tours in Antarctica and Greenland and helped design instruments at the Goddard Space Flight Center for NASA science probes in orbit around Earth and Jupiter. She and Meir were selected for NASA\u2019s astronaut corps in 2013, joining a class made up of four men and four women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful time for human spaceflight because I think we finally recognize that it\u2019s not worth going unless we go together, that it\u2019s important to not turn away any innovative idea, that everyone has a role and everyone has a place at the table as we move forward,\u201d Koch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to go for all humanity and to support humanity\u2019s love for exploration, then we have to do it with all humanity. And I think we\u2019re seeing that as our plans unfold for going back to the moon, seeing the first woman walk on the moon in 2024, and just recognizing that we have to go together if we\u2019re going to go, and we\u2019re going to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koch became the 14th woman to walk in space last March 29 when she and Nick Hague worked to install a second set of solar array batteries. She originally was expected to venture outside with astronaut Anne McClain for the first all-female spacewalk, but Hague took McClain\u2019s place because of a spacesuit sizing issue.<\/p>\n

The all-female spacewalk finally happened on Oct. 18 when Koch and Meir, the 15th woman walk in space, ventured outside to replace a faulty battery charge-discharge unit. It was the first EVA by two women in the 54 years since the late Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov carried out history\u2019s first spacewalk in 1965.<\/p>\n

Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space during an excursion with a male cosmonaut in 1984. NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan followed suit later that year, joining astronaut David Leestma for a shuttle spacewalk.<\/p>\n

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NASA astronaut Christina Koch is pictured Feb. 27 during training inside a Russian Soyuz spacecraft before her launch to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA\/Victor Zelentsov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy class was \u2026 the first class that\u2019s half female and half male, and we were never held to any different standards or expectations,\u201d Koch told \u201cCBS This Morning.\u201d \u201cHighlighting the fact that it was the first all-female EVA, spacewalk, is important because seeing those milestones be broken sort of tells people where we\u2019re at and where we think that the importance lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s inspiring because future space explorers do need to see people that remind them of themselves to kind of bring that inspiration home. I know that was certainly true for me and my background. So to have the opportunity to do that for future space explorers is a real honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about her most memorable moments in space, Koch said she enjoyed looking down on Michigan and North Carolina where she grew up, \u201cbut I would say the most awe-inspiring thing that I\u2019ve ever seen is the northern lights or southern lights from above on a planetary scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity working in Antarctica and the Arctic to see them from below and the beautiful, shimmering lights taking over the whole sky,\u201d she said. \u201cBut to look down on the Earth and see the entire shape of the aurora as they form near the poles was truly an amazing sight and just literally took my breath away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koch said she hopes setting a new single-flight endurance record will serve as a milestone to motivate others while pushing the boundaries of science because \u201cthat\u2019s important for our future exploration \u2026 going to Mars and also returning to the moon and going there to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut overall, I\u2019d have to say that my number one hope for this milestone is that the record is exceeded again as soon as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause that means that we\u2019re continuing to push the boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA astronaut Christina Koch works with an experiment on the International Space Station in this Dec. 22 photo. Credit: NASA Astronaut Christina Koch, launched to the International Space Station in March, marks her 289th day in space Saturday, breaking retired astronaut Peggy Whitson\u2019s world record for the longest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1668,784,2344,1545,717,190],"class_list":["post-12745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronauts","tag-christina-koch","tag-expedition-61","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}